I beg to move the adjournment until Thursday, 12th April That will allow us a fortnight and two days.
ADJOURNMENT OF THE DAIL. - COMPENSATION FOR LOSS OF PROPERTY.
I do not want to detain the Deputies longer, but there is an urgent matter on which I should like the Government to give us some announcement. It is the matter of compensation for loss of property. Just before Christmas they were good enough to say that they did not intend to proceed with actions and claims at the then ensuing sessions, which began in January. Everything was adjourned, and people were saved expense by the announcement. They were adjourned to Easter, and it was hoped that this Bill would become law in time to allow them to go on for the Easter Session, which begins a fortnight before we assemble. The Seanad has a compensation Bill down for the Second Reading to-morrow, and I do not think they are going to spend their Easter holidays in sitting in Committee on that Bill. In no case could the Bill become law before Wednesday next, so as to enable those Quarter Sessions which begin on Wednesday, and which will be going on for three weeks, to take up the claims. I should like if the Minister for Home Affairs would make some announcement similar to that which he made last December, to the effect that the Government did not intend going on with those malicious injury cases at the next ensuing sessions. It would be a great convenience not only to the Judges sitting at the next Sessions, but to the litigants who are in readiness to come on.
Mr. O'HIGGINS
I have discussed this matter with the Attorney-General, and the position is that the Bill is not law, and, even if it were to be passed through all its stages in the Seanad to-morrow, it would scarcely be possible to provide that those cases be heard at the Easter Sessions. Procedure and rules would have to be laid down, and cases would have to be prepared. It is not unlikely that it would be necessary for the County Court Judges to hold special Sessions to deal with claims of this kind. The State Solicitors throughout the country will receive instructions to apply for adjournments in claims of that kind, and consequently it will not be necessary or advisable for solicitors to bring up their witnesses or to go ahead with the cases.