I move: "That a supplementary sum, not exceeding £5,107, be granted to defray the charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of March, 1924, for the expenses of Criminal Prosecutions and other Law Charges, including a grant in relief of expenses payable by Statute out of local rates."
The original net estimate for law charges for 1923-24 was £54,154, and a Supplementary Vote of £5,107 is now required. Additional expenditure to that already estimated for would be required under sub-heads B and F, and it will be necessary to open a new sub-head for the expenses of American litigation in regard to Dáil Eireann Funds. In regard to sub-head B, State Solicitors, the additional amount required is entirely due to the fact that the salaries of State Solicitors in the quarter ended the 31st March, 1923, fell to be paid out of this year's Vote. The reason for this was that the salaries of State Solicitors were not sanctioned until August, 1923, and consequently it was not possible to pay this amount out of the 1923-24 Vote.
The Supplementary Estimate under this sub-head is, therefore, in the nature of a re-vote. In the table supplied, sub-head F, fees to counsel, the estimated additional expenditure is occasioned by the removal of certain cases from military to Civil Courts, and the fact that Civil Courts are now functioning more normally. Sub-head G.G., expenses of litigation in the U.S.A., with reference to Dáil Funds, provision for the expenses of this litigation was made to some extent in the External Affairs Vote where there is an item of £1,750 under sub-head B 6, but it has now been decided that these expenses are to be borne on the Law Charges Vote. The expenditure up to date amounts to about £4,000, and it has been paid from the External Affairs Vote, and is due to be repaid to that Vote. It is estimated that a further sum of £1,000 will be required up to the end of the current financial year. A certain proportion of the sum required is in the nature of a re-vote. The estimated total savings on this Vote for 1923-24 amount to £4,843. The most substantial savings are under sub-head D, bailiffs, where the savings are expected to amount to £1,540. A provision of £2,500 was made under this sub-head for the payment of bailiffs, provided under Section 2 of the Enforcement of Law (Occasional Powers) Act, 1923. It is estimated that a saving of £1,200 will be effected under sub-head A, Assize Expenditure, for the obvious reason that the Judges did not go out on Circuit. The other savings call for no special comment. That recalls to my mind a mistake I made in the previous Estimate. The savings were not made in connection with bailiffs, but with process servers, and the serving of processes.
