asked the Minister for Justice if he would state why legal facilities were not given to poor persons in the Rules of the Circuit Court, dated the 8th February, 1930, as was originally intended by Rules 71, 72 and 73 of the draft Rules of the Circuit Court, dated the 16th March, 1928; and what he proposes to do in the matter.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Circuit Court Rules.
I am aware that in the Rules of the Circuit Court, which were recently approved of by the Dáil, there are no provisions corresponding to the Rules mentioned in the Deputy's question.
In my opinion, any such provisions would, in actual practice, be nugatory, and I presume that the Rule-making Committee was influenced by the same consideration in deciding not to include such provisions in the revised rules.
I do not propose to take any action in the matter.
I do not know if the Minister is familiar with the matter, but there are a few questions I would like to ask about it. Is he aware that poor people, who are not able to afford to pay for actions, find that there are a great many cases which could be dealt with under the rules? I would like to ask the Minister whether the Rule-making Committee could not be called together to deal with the matter and to make such rules as would not be nugatory.
I was present when the matter was discussed in the Seanad, and I gathered that there was pretty general opinion there that it was undesirable to make such rules. One reason was that a person with a litigious complex would insist on bringing cases when it was conceded that no better service could be provided under any set of rules that could be devised.
I made inquiries about that after the discussion in the Seanad, and I found that people who had considerable experience—ten, twelve, and fourteen years' experience—in dealing with this kind of case found that a person with a fictitious case could very speedily be disposed of. At the same time there are a large number of people of a deserving kind who require some kind of rules to provide for them.
There seems to be possibly a difference of opinion, but the Rule-making Committee were all people who had experience. There was an investigation by the Department of Justice, and the matter was sure to be raised, and several people who had experience spoke in the Seanad on the matter. The general concensus of opinion there was that it was not necessary.
I would suggest to the Minister that he would make further inquiries into the matter and see if anything could be done about it.
The Minister for Justice will be told about that.