It might be well if I said a few words in explanation and exposition of this Bill. Senators are generally aware of the situation with which it is intended to deal. We had for some years here in this country a dual system of Courts and a conflict for jurisdiction. It has been spoken of as concurrent jurisdiction; it would be nearly as true to speak of it as concurrent lack of jurisdiction. At any rate there were two kinds—the Courts set up by Dáil Eireann and the existing State Courts of the British administration. People brought their business to one or other of those two Courts, and unfortunately after the Truce people brought their business to both, going into one Court for an injunction against the other party from proceeding in the other Court. I think most thoughtful people in the country realise that if the country were to continue plunging about in that condition of concurrent lack of jurisdiction it would spell an end to commerce and stability.
We had the alternative. There were really two ways of dealing with the situation, to adopt and adapt the Dáil Courts as they stood or to take the view that the State Courts having passed into our hands should receive the sanction and assent of the Parliament of the people since they were no longer obnoxious in the sense in which they were obnoxious in the past. We withdrew the jurisdiction from the Dáil Courts and that step was criticised. But Senators will appreciate the fact that they were at best an improvised system, used in the conflict against the British. Of course they did real work, both in keeping certain peace and order in the country and enabling people to settle minor disputes inevitable in rural communities, and also in their propaganda value for the disturbances in the country at the time. But the movement was split from top to bottom. The personnel of the Courts had gone in different directions and people who witnessed the concluding stages of those Courts, who had any real knowledge of the abuses which prevailed generally did not regret the steps taken by the Government to end them.
We should have long since introduced a Bill of this kind. The chief criticism of this Bill is that it is belated. It is because we had to observe a sense of proportion and there were more pressing matters. I am aware that cases of hardship did occur in the delay in tabling this Bill. It provides for the payment of Judicial Commissioners to deal with cases pending in the Courts at the time of their abolition and to deal with any appeals there may be from decrees given in the Dáil Courts. Section 2 deals with the appointment of the Commissioners. The class of business with which those Commissioners will deal is set out in Sections 4 and 5. There is a provision for the appointment of Assistant Commissioners to help in the winding up of these Courts. Sums were due under this system of Courts that it was not possible to pay because there were no legal provisions.
