The House will recollect that at last session we had before us the consideration of the Rules of Court, proposed by the Committee for the Circuit Courts. They were not received by us until about a week before the adjournment, and we referred them to a Committee for consideration and report. That Committee, in the short time at their disposal, did make a report in which they recommended the rejection of certain of these Rules, but the Committee mentioned at the time that the period allotted them was so short they had not been able to give the Rules the consideration they required, and they asked the House to refer them back to them, which was done.
Since then I have not called that Committee together for this reason: I ascertained from the Minister for Justice that he was conferring with his Committee with a view to seeing how far the objections we had raised and certain objections raised in the other House, could be met by amended regulations. Having heard that, I, at his request, went through them again myself very carefully, and I found that there were a number of others that for various reasons seemed to me either worthy of rejection or deserving of amendment. Accordingly, I sent in a report on the subject to the Minister for Justice. I reminded him, however, that it was purely an unofficial report, in no way representing the action of our Committee or the Seanad, and in no way binding them, but I thought that, inasmuch as the Committee was meeting and consulting the Minister, it might be a help to them, if they had my views, which he requested, before them. The House will understand that these views in no way represent the views of our Committee or the House, and the action of the Committee or the House will be quite unfettered when the matter comes up again before them for consideration.