I move:—"That the Committee agree with the Seanad in the following amendment":—
Before Section 28 a new section inserted as follows:—
Notwithstanding anything to the contrary contained in the Firearms (Temporary Provisions) (Continuance) Act, 1925 (No. 10 of 1925), the Firearms (Temporary Provisions) Act, 1924 (No. 9 of 1924), and every regulation made thereunder which is in force on the 31st day of July, 1925, shall continue in force after that day so far as but no further than is necessary to authorise and enable persons charged before, on, or after the said 31st day of July, 1925, with having committed on or before that day any offence under the said Firearms (Temporary Provisions) Act, 1924, or any breach of any such regulation as aforesaid to be prosecuted and tried and, if found guilty, to be convicted and sentenced under the said Act and regulations after the said 31st day of July, 1925, and to authorise and enable any appeal (including an appeal by way of case stated) against any conviction and sentence (whether before, on, or after the said 31st day of July, 1925) for an offence under the said Act or breach of any such regulation to be brought, heard, and determined after the said 31st day of July, 1925.
The simplest explanation of the effect of the amendment is, perhaps, that it creates the position that would exist if we had inserted in the Temporary Firearms Act at the end a short section, or sub-section, to the effect that the Act would expire on the 31st July, without prejudice to existing prosecutions or pending appeals from sentences imposed under the Act. As it is, if a prosecution is brought under the existing temporary Act which expires on 31st July, and if there was an appeal from any decision in cases of prosecution so brought, if that appeal lapsed over the date of expiration, the Circuit Judge before whom the appeal would be brought would have no jurisdiction, and would be bound, either to reverse the decision of the District Justice or refuse jurisdiction, in which case the decision of the District Justice would be non-effective. Simply to provide against such a situation it is necessary to insert this new section in the permanent Act which bridges over the period from the temporary Act to the period in which this permanent measure will be operating.