Seanad Éireann debate -
Thursday, 8 Oct 1981

Vol. 96 No. 1

Funds of Suitors Bill, 1981: Second Stage.

Question proposed: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time."

Minister of State at the Department of Justice (Mr. Spring)

The purpose of the Bill is to enable a sum not exceeding £500,000 to be withdrawn from the funds of suitors and applied towards the cost of carrying out external renovation work which is essential for the preservation of King's Inns building in Henrietta Street, Dublin.

The funds of suitors are the cash and securities belonging to suitors and other persons which have been transferred to or paid into or deposited with the High Court. The funds arise from many sources. They include statutory deposits made by insurance companies, banks, trade unions, auctioneers and house agents, moneys lodged by defendants in certain types of actions, funds of wards of court, trustee funds and moneys lodged in administration suits. In the ordinary way these funds may be used only for the benefit of those entitled to them. However, part of the funds is represented by unclaimed dividends and balances which have been accumulating over a long period. These are known as dormant funds and may be defined more precisely as balances in accounts in the funds of suitors which have not been active for 15 years or more. The funds of suitors are under the control of the High Court, and subject to that control are managed by and stand in the name of the accountant of the Courts of Justice.

The total liability of the accountant in respect of funds of suitors on 30 September 1980, the latest date for which there are published figures, exceeded £49,505,000. Assets held by the accountant, consisting of cash and securities, amounted to £48,227,000 on that date. The difference between the amount of liabilities and assets on hands on 30 September 1980 — £1,278,000 — represents the aggregate of the moneys which have been withdrawn from the funds of suitors over the past 200 years under the authority of various Acts of the Parliament of Ireland, the Parliament of the United Kingdom and the Oireachtas. All these Acts indemnified suitors for any loss which they might sustain by reason of the withdrawals, and these indemnities are backed by the Central Fund. Another way of saying this is that a portion of the funds of suitors, at present amounting to £1,278,180, is not represented by cash or securities held by the accountant, but simply by the liability of the Central Fund to indemnify suitors against any loss up to that amount.

Moneys withdrawn from the funds of suitors under Acts passed prior to the establishment of the Oireachtas were applied for such purposes as building and improving the Courts of Justice and enlarging the Law Library. Withdrawals from the funds were authorised by the Oireachtas in 1959, 1963 and in 1966 as follows:—

The Funds of Suitors Act, 1959, enabled a total of £323,000 to be withdrawn for three purposes, namely, to provide assistance towards the rebuilding of the Abbey Theatre, to finance repair and renovation of the buildings of the Society of King's Inns and to provide for the creation of a fund for the maintenance of the Society's Library.

The Funds of Suitors Act, 1963, authorised the release of a sum of £50,000 to help finance the rebuilding of the Cork Opera House.

The Funds of Suitors Act, 1966, authorised the release of £450,000 to help finance the cost of rebuilding the Abbey Theatre and the completion of the Cork Opera House.

The sums withdrawn to date from the funds of suitors amount, as I have said, to £1,278,000. However, assets consisting of £862,000 cash and securities nominally valued at £1,583,000 — market value £1,345,000 — were on hands in the dormant accounts on 31 August 1981. The yield from the securities is adding to the cash balances in the dormant accounts at a rate of £184,000 per annum at present.

The money to be withdrawn under the Bill will actually be taken from the cash balance which is maintained by the accountant in a current account in the Bank of Ireland to meet all his cash liabilities to suitors on foot of both dormant and live accounts. This cash balance amounts at present to £2,203,609 and is constantly growing. Apart altogether from the fact that suitors will enjoy a complete indemnity, I am fully satisfied that the sum of £500,000 may safely be withdrawn from this cash balance.

Perhaps I should now turn to the works for which the money would be used, but first a few words about the King's Inns buildings themselves may be appropriate. The King's Inns was the last work in Dublin of James Gandon, the architect who designed and supervised the erection of the Custom House, the Four Courts, the Military Infirmary and the West-moreland Street facade of the Bank of Ireland. Gandon retired while the building was in course of construction and the work was completed by his pupil and partner, Henry Aaron Baker. The cupola above the join of the two wings was designed by Francis Johnson, the architect of the General Post Office in Dublin. Before the completion of the south wing, intended for a library, it was taken over by the Government to house, first, the Prerogative Court and later, the Registry of Deeds. The Registry of Deeds has occupied this portion of the building — that is the south wing together with the join section under the cupola — ever since.

There is unanimity, among those best qualified to judge, that the building which houses the King's Inns and the Registry of Deeds is a minor classic and one of the finest buildings of its kind in Dublin. That part of it which is not owned by the State is listed as a building to be preserved, under the Dublin City Development Plan, 1980. It is a building of national significance and importance and must feature prominently in the architectural heritage of the nation. It is used by the Society of King's Inns for the purpose of educating and training barristers. I wish to add my own few words of praise to the general admiration that this lovely building enjoys. I am always impressed by the quiet beauty of its facade particularly so coming on it in a part of Dublin which — goodness knows — does not have any great surplus of fine buildings.

Architectural examination of the King's Inns buildings and the adjoining State-owned Registry of Deeds building has revealed that the external stonework of both buildings is in a state of serious decay. The state of the stonework gives rise to a danger of falling masonry and steps have been taken to protect the public by erecting hoardings in places. Full repairs to the external stonework of the buildings have been estimated to cost £1,310,000, consisting of £630,000 for the King's Inns portion and £680,000 for the Registry of Deeds part. The Office of Public Works have already started to carry out the necessary renovation work on the Registry of Deeds building. The cost of executing similar work on the King's Inns building is quite beyond the capacity of the Benchers of the Society of King's Inns to fund, and accordingly the Government decided that the cost of the external renovation work needed for the preservation of the building should be met by the State. Portion of the funds needed for this — £500,000 — is to come from the funds of suitors with the balance coming from the Exchequer, which will also bear the complete cost of the Registry of Deeds renovation work. I need hardly emphasise that this Bill is not concerned at all with the expenditure by the Board of Works of voted moneys on the job — merely with the transfer of funds from the courts to the Exchequer.

The work involved consists mainly of replacing or refacing and repointing the granite stonework of the buildings and repairing the boundary walls, gates and railings surrounding them. As I indicated earlier, the King's Inns benefited from the funds of suitors before, in 1959. Under the Funds of Suitors Act, 1959, a total of £70,000 was paid to the trustees of the Society. £25,000 of this was for the creation of an investment fund and the application of the income thereof for the maintenance of the King's Inns Library, which is not involved in the current renovation project. The balance of £45,000 went to defray the cost of expenditure incurred in undertaking work of renovation and repair to the King's Inns building which are the subject of the present Bill. It has, of course, proved inadequate to enable renovation work to be carried out since 1959 but was, in any event, never intended to cater for works of the kind now found to be necessary.

Section 2 of the Bill is the provision which enables the money in the funds of suitors to be devoted to the work in question.

As in the case of previous withdrawals from the funds of suitors, section 4 of the Bill affords complete indemnity to suitors against any loss they might otherwise sustain as a result of the enactment of the proposed legislation.

Section 3 may be regarded as unusual in that anything corresponding to it will not be found in previous legislation of this kind. It is a provision to extend, temporarily, the powers of the Commissioners of Public Works. The Office of Public Works have been given responsibility for the renovation work to the King's Inns and Registry of Deeds buildings. However under existing legislation, the commissioners are only empowered to undertake work in relation to public buildings and as the King's Inns premises are not a public building it is necessary to empower the commissioners to work on it. The extended powers which the Bill confers on the commissioners relates exclusively to work on the King's Inns building and will expire after five years, at the latest.

May I conclude by commending this Bill to the House. At a time of acute financial stringency it behoves us all to exercise the most extreme caution in relation to public expenditure. While the release of funds from the courts accounts may not be technically the same as authorising the spending of the taxpayers' money, it seems to me to call for the same level of responsibility. I am satisfied, however, that the purpose to which this money will be devoted is most deserving and that not only is it appropriate but indeed necessary that the dormant funds of suitors should be used as proposed in this Bill.

Mr. S. O'Leary

I welcome the Bill. As the Minister of State said, it provides for the payment to the Commissioners of Public Works a sum of money to enable them to carry out work at the premises of the Honourable Society of King's Inns. It provides for the extension of the powers of the commissioners for that purpose. The House should know something of the nature of the Honourable Society of King's Inns and should be able to distinguish it in their minds from the profession of practising barrister at the Bar of Ireland. The House could reasonably be expected to question what appears to be a subvention to the practising members of a profitable profession. The Honourable Society of King's Inns is not a profession — it is an educational society. It is not in receipt of funds in the normal way from the State. It is no more able to draw upon the funds of the practising members at the Bar of Ireland than the universities can call upon registered medical practitioners once they have qualified from their university. It is in that context that we should see the Honourable Society of King's Inns, not as a society of barristers, but as a third level educational institute which does not receive funds from the State on any regular basis except very occasionally, as outlined by the Minister of State.

From my own personal experience the Honourable Society of King's Inns carry out their functions and duties to educate the students to be called to the Bar and to serve before the courts in an excellent and mature fashion. I recommend the way they welcome mature students, those of us who did not have the opportunity of attending university when we left school. The Honourable Society of King's Inns go out of their way to welcome these people, to encourage them to study to reach an adequate qualification and that is something which should merit our approval.

I do not think that the House should let this opportunity pass without placing on record their appreciation of that fact. The facilities of the Honourable Society of King's Inns are available not only to students of the society and to practising barristers, but they are also available, subject to the normal conditions, to the general public on application to the Honourable Society. The library facilities there are not aided by this but the whole fabric of the building is as one and the facilities which are freely available to the public are under-utilised. There is plenty of scope for greater utilisation by the public. I hope that the general public will be made aware of this facility in a part of Dublin which is comparatively deprived and will make more use of the social facilities which are made available by the Honourable Society and also the education facilities which they make available directly through the education courses which they run and the library facilities which they so freely provide. In all these circumstances it is appropriate that we should welcome the purpose for which this Bill is before the House.

Mrs. McGuinness

I join in the welcome to this Bill and, as a member of that profitable profession which has been referred to — I wish it was as profitable as Senator O'Leary appears to think — and as one who has undergone the somewhat curious educative process of eating my dinner in the King's Inns, I should join in the welcome to this Bill. The King's Inns building is undoubtedly a part of our architectural heritage, and is in a part of Dublin where unfortunately much of the architectural beauty has been allowed to decay.

I hope in providing funds to restore the glories of the King's Inns that the Government will also consider the area of this city and encourage other works of restoration — works which have been carried out by private persons such as the people who have exquisitely restored some of the houses in North Great George's Street. They should think of the area of the immediate north city of Dublin as one which is worthy of architectural preservation and attention. I also join with Senator O'Leary in saying that I hope the building at the King's Inns will be made more available to the ordinary public because in the past it has been a somewhat arcane building which has been available for the use of Bar students, barristers and so on and very few other people have felt that they could possibly get in through its portals, as it were. A start has been made in welcoming groups of lawyers from other countries who have come to visit Ireland by holding functions for them in the King's Inns. When we are providing public money, and although the funds of suitors is not quite the same as State money nevertheless it is in a sense public money for the restoration of the King's Inns, we should encourage the Honourable Society to welcome other groups to the building to try to make this part of our heritage more available to the ordinary public and less closed in for barristers themselves. I am sure the Minister of State, who is also a colleague at the King's Inns, appreciates this point and I am very anxious that this should happen.

Mrs. Robinson

I, too, would like to welcome this Bill and speak briefly on it. Before doing so, I would also like to extend a warm welcome to the Minister of State on his first visit to the Seanad. It is appropriate that, as a colleague at the Bar, he would introduce this Bill which in a general sense benefits the legal profession to some extent and also the area of Dublin in Henrietta Street where the King's Inns is located. I endorse what the Minister of State said in his opening speech about the importance of this building — one of the public buildings built by Ireland's greatest architect in a fine period of architecture, James Gandon. With the Fourt Courts and the Custom House, it must rank as one of his greatest buildings.

It is important that we find the necessary funds to preserve and maintain our architectural heritage because it is very worrying how the fabric of great buildings can deteriorate. I understand that this is a considerable problem in relation to the King's Inns. The Minister may elaborate on this. Initially, it was felt that the facade with the important sculptures on it should be cleaned and that it should be kept in condition which a building of such European significance warrants. When work on this started, it was seen that there were more serious problems with the fabric of the building itself. Therefore, it was caught well in time, but it was important that it should be caught.

I also take this opportunity to urge that if, from time to time, there is any more money in this famous fund of suitors serious consideration be given to the urgent need for attention to courthouses, particularly in relation to the courthouses in different counties. I would like to approach it briefly at two very different levels. These courthouses are very significant buildings in the towns in which they are located. I understand that some of our courthouses are buildings of European significance.

Acting Chairman

I am afraid the Senator is going outside the scope of the debate.

Mrs. Robinson

I accept the ruling of the Acting Chairman and I will just round off what I was saying. From their architectual significance and, perhaps even more, from the point of view of ensuring that the courthouses have the facilities to accommodate people who use them, this is an area which warrants examining. I say this because it seems appropriate that, if there is a fund of suitors which can from time to time be drawn upon to provide money where money is very tight, then it is perhaps useful to have some indication of what further uses might be made of this money. Since a number of public statements have been made by members of the Judiciary about the condition of our courthouses, that, at least, should be on the agenda. With that plea for special consideration for possible future uses of the funds of suitors, I certainly welcome this Bill.

Mr. Walsh

I find it difficult enough to welcome this Bill and I wish to express some reservations about it. I note from what the Minister of State said that moneys from this fund were expended a few years ago on restoring this building. I would like to find out what works in fact were carried out at that time. How is it that in this Bill the Honourable Society of the King's Inns are able to lay their hands on £500,000 when we have severe restraint in other areas, areas that would be better served by an allocation of money? Senator Liam Ryan talked about the desperation of the inmates of our maintenance institutions and I suggest that when there is a bonanza of £500,000 in a fund, this being the year of the disabled, we should find a suitable project for that money. I find it difficult enough to understand how, although £70,000 from this fund was expended not so long ago on this building, a further sum of £500,000 is required to carry out additional works. I am concerned that public funds be used to the best possible effect and I would like to know who has the responsibility for ensuring that this money is spent in the appropriate manner.

I do know that that building, internally anyway, has some very fine ancillary facilities in it. Perhaps a sum of money which was intended for those facilities was put towards the upkeep of the external walls in the presumption that this money would be provided. On Committee Stage we should be given assurances that the money will be allocated for the best possible purpose and some guidelines should be drawn up as to how the moneys might be expended. Over the last 25 years projects have been haphazardly drawn from the top of somebody's head for allocations of money. Guidelines, or some more organised way of dealing with these funds, are desirable.

Mr. J. Harte

I welcome the Minister to the House on this, his first occasion here. I wish him well and I hope that he will get as much co-operation on all the Bills that he brings in as he will get on this one.

As a Dubliner, I could be accused of being biased because I have been often heard to sing the song "Watching the New Glass Cages Growing Up," but that is not my reason for supporting the Bill. This is a wonderful building and the repairs are necessary. It is a part of Dublin's heritage and the Office of Public Works will be responsible jointly with the commissioners for the work being carried out. I cannot see it as anything contentious. It is an enabling Bill and I support it.

Minister of State at the Department of Justice (Mr. Spring)

I thank the Senators for their words of welcome and I wish them well in their deliberations in the Upper House. I would like to deal with a few points, first, in relation to how the need for the repairs arose. There were, I believe, two factors involved. The Society had an architectural survey commissioned and the Office of Public Works commenced work on the office of the Registry of Deeds. I should explain, for anybody who may not be familiar with the building, that there is no physical separation between the property of the Benchers of the Kings Inns and the Registry of Deeds. There is a park, adjoining the building, to which the public have free access. Many residents of Braodstone and the surrounding districts use a route through the King's Inns property and the Registry of Deeds to the public part of the properties on their way into the city as a short cut. We were faced with a situation where the building is in a dangerous condition and, if we were to allow it to remain in that dangerous condition, either the State, through the Registry of Deeds, or the Benchers of the Kings Inns would find themselves in a liability situation if any accidents took place, which apparently were quite foreseeable in that hoardings have already been erected to prevent any such accidents taking place.

I accept Senator Robinson's point in relation to courthouses. While the Cathaoirleach has ruled this out, I admit, from my own experience in practising law throughout the country, that there are certain courthouses in need of immediate attention. My Department will be looking at those as a priority.

However, there seems to be general consensus in welcoming this Bill, which I think is very necessary. In reply to Senator Walsh who has his reservations, which in these times of stringency I can understand, there is a certain precedent for the spending of these funds in the manner in which I am now asking for their release, in that there has been consistency in the spending of the funds heretofore on the Abbey Theatre, on the Cork Opera House and likewise on the Kings Inns building. I would hope that the work to be done on the Kings Inns building will definitely guard the building against the effects of time and that it may stick out as a shining light in our efforts to preserve the architecture of Dublin. I have total confidence in the Office of Public Works in the task they are undertaking. I think we have only to look at Dublin Castle to see for ourselves proof of their capabilities.

Question put and agreed to.

Agreed to take remaining Stages today.