There are three matters I wish to mention. The first relates to a question I asked the Minister for Justice last week regarding untimely delays in the Dublin District Courts in connection with the taking of depositions. The Minister replied that he was not aware that these delays any longer continued. I am glad to take this opportunity of stating that my experience coincides with the Minister's, and the information on which I based that question was somewhat out of date. I believe, however, there was very serious delay in the taking of depositions last autumn but, as a result of measures taken by the Minister, the delay was overtaken and that abuse will not arise again.
It may be desirable on this Supplementary Estimate to direct the attention of Dáil Éireann to the very great evil that can eventuate if the taking of depositions is long delayed, because a person may lie in jail for a very protracted period for no other reason than that there are not enough district justices to complete the preliminary procedure requisite to have people brought to trial and their cases disposed of. Therefore, I would press on the Minister to keep under constant review the dispatch with which the taking of depositions in criminal cases is proceeding, so that in any case where persons appear to be lying in jail because the depositions have not been completed, he will take the necessary steps to get the work done and those people promptly brought to trial.
I do not think it is a good system to be adding temporary district justices. The whole basis of the judiciary is that a judicial person should be independent. I know that we do not expect a district justice to have the same security of tenure as a High Court judge. Nevertheless, if young barristers are to be sent out as district justices with the knowledge that their appointment comes to an end in three months and their bearing during the period of appointment may have a very material effect on their prospects of reappointment, I think you have the evil creeping in that our system was designed to avoid, and that was that a judge's conduct on the bench would be influenced by the prospect of some benefit or penalty which might be conferred or imposed on him by the executive of the day. I suppose it is not possible to avoid occasionally having to resort to the principle of a temporary justice, but I think the less we have of these temporary justices the better, and if, in order to avoid their constant employment, it is necessary to have a somewhat redundant staff of district justices, I would prefer to have the somewhat redundant staff rather than be continually sending out temporary men.
All of us recognise that there must be a hierarchy in the judiciary, that we must have judges of the Supreme Court, judges of the High Court, judges of the Circuit Court and the justices in the District Courts; but that should not reconcile us to choosing for the position of a district justice men of inferior ability. Deputies should bear this in mind, that when a High Court judge goes out on circuit he is so remote from the people that the thought barely occurs to the average man in rural Ireland that he could be contacted, to use an American phrase, by any interested party. The troops are turned out, there is a guard of honour, and the judge is a very remote person indeed. The Circuit Court judge is, perhaps, also to a great or lesser degree remote from the people. There is a certain form or dignity observed on his arrival, and although it may not be as substantial as in the case of a High Court judge, nevertheless it places him a step or two away from contact with litigants outside the court.
But the district justice is a familiar figure in every country town. He is there frequently and he meets the solicitors. It would be quite becoming for him to take lunch in the hotel and move about the town. Anyone living in rural Ireland knows that our people do not err on the side of over-confidence and they are profoundly convinced of the fact that every man has his price. We here in this House may know full well that the justices sitting on the District Court bench are quite immune to any such approach; but I will remind Deputies of the dictum on one occasion of the British Court of Appeal, which pointed out that where you are dealing with litigants you have not only to give them justice, but you have to persuade them that they have justice. A great many people get justice and when they get it they are not at all sure that it is justice they have got; they think the other fellow got the justice and they got none.
It is vitally important, if popular confidence in the judiciary is to be maintained, that we should have not only incorruptible district justices, but district justices whom all the people believe to be incorruptible. To do that we ought to ensure that the quality of the men we send down to those positions shall be above reproach. I think that applies with special force to the temporary district justices. It may appear in the eyes of professional men to be a comparatively menial judicial office. In the eyes of people living in rural Ireland and who are concerned with social order and peace, I can assure the Minister that one of the most important judicial officers in the country areas is the district justice. If there is a good district justice in whom the people have confidence and whom they feel is above reproach, then peace in the area in which he functions will be far more dependable on his integrity than on that of the Circuit Court judge or the High Court judge serving in the same district.
I am not altogether satisfied that, amongst the Minister's recent appointments as district justices, he has had regard to the high standing that a barrister should have in his profession before he is chosen for the responsible office of district justice, and I invite the Minister, instead of regarding his position as being a reward for political service or conformity to political views, to consider rather that the public are entitled to demand that the persons chosen for this work will be persons chosen on merit alone.
In conclusion, I want to make this observation. It was recently suggested in this House that all Government legal work is given to Government supporters. I rejoice to observe that, for some time, the Attorney-General has eschewed that practice, and seems to have distributed Government work accordingly in what, in his judgment, were the most efficient hands. I invite the Minister for Justice to take example by the Attorney-General, and to appoint district justices permanently from the front ranks of the solicitors' and barristers' professions, and where he has to appoint temporary justices to be even more careful in their choice, in order to ensure that those going down the country will command the full confidence of the people with whose affairs they are going to deal.
