I move:
That a sum not exceeding £292,000 be granted to defray the charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of March, 1969, for the Salaries and Expenses of the Office of the Minister for Justice, and of certain other Services administered by that Office, including a Grant-in-Aid; and of the Public Record Office, and of the Keeper of State Papers and for the purchase of Historical Documents, etc.
With your permission, a Cheann Comhairle, I propose, as has been the practice in previous years, to treat the six Votes as one group so that there may be one general discussion, without, of course, prejudicing the right of any Deputy to raise a particular point on any individual Vote.
The total Estimate for all the Votes for which I am responsible is £11,660,000. The total provision for the year 1967/68 was £11,668,550. The total provision for the present year is, therefore, lower by £8,550 than the corresponding figure for last year.
The Vote for the Office of the Minister for Justice caters for the staff and services of the Department's Headquarters, and shows an increase of £13,400. This increase is accounted for mainly by the provision of £10,000 for additional assistance that is essential to enable some of the overtaxed administrative divisions to deal more expeditiously and efficiently with the growing volume of work in such fields as criminal legislation, road traffic control, international agreements and conciliation and arbitration; and to deal with new work arising from the implementation of recommendations of the Committee on Court Practice and Procedure and from the centralisation in my Department as from 1st August this year of responsibility for the payment of the expenses of State witnesses in criminal cases.
The balance of the increase is accounted for by normal incremental progression.
The law reform activities of my Department continue to make satisfactory progress, and it is my intention, in what is of necessity a long-term programme, to give priority to the preparation of measures which are of practical importance to the general body of our citizens.
The text of the Criminal Justice Bill, 1967, was circulated last May and, as the Bill will be coming up for debate on the Second Stage in the near future, I do not propose to say anything more about it now other than to mention that there has been a great deal of misconception and misrepresentation as to the purposes and effects of some provisions of this Bill which I hope to dispel on Second Reading.
I hope to bring before the Oireachtas later this year proposals to amend and consolidate the law relating to the registration of deeds. These proposals will include measures designed to modernise the practice and procedure in the Registry of Deeds.
The Committee on Court Practice and Procedure have submitted eight interim reports, and have at my request, made available to me quite recently the portion of their ninth interim report which deals with the organisation of the district court in Dublin City and County. In this advance section of their report, the committee recommended unanimously certain changes in the structure of the district court in Dublin City and County. This section of the report has been circulated for the views of those affected, i.e., the Justices concerned, the Incorporated Law Society, the Bar Council, the local authorities and the Garda Síochána.
The first of the Reports from the Committee on Court Practice and Procedure dealt with the preliminary investigation of indictable offences; and the Criminal Procedure Act, 1967, which came into operation on 1st August, 1967, is based on this report.
Three of the interim reports deal with the jury system, and another deals with the question of increased jurisdiction for the district and circuit courts. Proposals for legislation are at present being prepared on these and other related matters, and I shall submit these proposals to the Government shortly.
Two reports deal with the reorganisation of the structure of the courts on the criminal side. I hope to introduce amending legislation, based on these reports, in due course.
While I am on this question of criminal law, I should mention that I have decided to examine as a matter of urgency the present law as to bail, which, as I see it, is highly unsatisfactory. I doubt very much if the protection of the liberty of the individual requires that every accused person must be granted bail unless there is substantial evidence that he would be likely to abscond or evade justice. The law officers and the Garda are aware that in a great many cases of persons awaiting trial, persons, indeed, with a previous record of criminal convictions, the grant of bail is availed of to commit other crimes similar to those with which they are charged.
I am quite satisfied from the facts placed before me by responsible police officers that in the 12 months ended 30th September, 1967, some 150 persons granted bail by the courts while awaiting trial committed over 500 fresh offences against property. The Garda authorities have pointed out to me that there must be many more of these bail cases which have not come to light. To my mind, in this day and age of widespread crime, it is unreal not to take into account, in bail applications, the previous bad character of an accused and the views of responsible police officers that there is a likelihood of further criminal acts if the accused is on bail pending trial. In this connection it is of interest to note that, at a conference held in Lagos in 1961 under the auspices of the International Commission of Jurists, it was laid down as a fundamental principle of penal law that courts and magistrates shall permit an accused person to be or to remain free pending trial except in the following cases which are deemed proper grounds for refusing bail:—
(a) in the case of a very grave offence; (b) if the accused is likely to interfere with witnesses or impede the course of justice; (c) if the accused is likely to commit the same or other offences; (d) if the accused may fail to appear for trial.
A prisoner facing a heavy sentence has little to lose if he commits further offences. He may consider that he has to go to prison in any event and in an effort to get money may commit further offences.
Moreover, the Constitution imposes a specific obligation on the State by its laws to protect as best it may from unjust attack the life, person and property rights of every citizen. I do not see how we as legislators can be said to be discharging this obligation if we do not take measures to ensure that the general public will be adequately protected from persons who by their criminal acts over a long period, and in particular by their continued and deliberate defiance of the law while on bail, are making nonsense of the protection which the Constitution purports to guarantee to law-abiding citizens.
I do not want anything I have said to suggest that I am not as anxious as anyone else to safeguard the liberty of the individual and the presumption of innocence in criminal proceedings, but there is surely scope for achieving a better balance between the rights of individuals and the reasonable rights of the community in these matters.
To revert to the activities of the Committee on Court Practice and Procedure, I should mention that the Committee's eighth interim report deals with the service of court documents by post and the fees of professional witnesses.
One of the specific matters which is engaging my attention at present is the regulation of solicitors' costs. The present system whereby solicitors' remuneration is determined by five separate statutory bodies is open to serious question. It seems to me that the proper way to deal with the problem is to have solicitors' costs determined by a single authority. I have in mind to provide in legislation for the appointment of a small advisory committee consisting of not more than, say, ten persons to formally advise the Minister on matters in relation to costs or charges. I envisage also that this committee would be empowered to take evidence in public and to receive representations from the Council of the Incorporated Law Society and the Bar Council and from any other interested bodies or persons. This whole question is under examination at the moment and I hope to deal with it in the proposed legislation to increase the jurisdiction of the district and circuit courts.
Legislation is at present being prepared to consolidate, amend and reform the law on compensation for malicious injuries. Apart from revising the present system of compensation for damage to property, the Bill proposes to introduce a completely new system of compensation, as of right, for persons killed or injured while coming to the assistance of the Garda, while preventing crime or while saving life. I hope to bring this Bill before the Oireachtas before the end of the present session.
I am also having legislation prepared to provide for the enforcement of foreign judgements in this country on a reciprocal basis. There will be two Bills, one relating to maintenance and affiliation orders and the second dealing with other judgements. Negotiations are in progress with the British and Northern Ireland authorities on both measures. In addition, I propose to make provision in the Courts (Jurisdiction) Bill already mentioned for an increase in the maximum amount of maintenance which the district court may award to deserted wives and to empower the court to order the payment of maintenance allowances in respect of children in desertion cases.
During the year the Landlord and Tenant Commission completed and presented their Report on Occupational Tenancies under the Landlord and Tenant Act, 1931. The Government have considered and accepted in principle the recommendations in the report. Legislation is at present being drafted to give effect to the Commission's recommendations and I hope to bring the Bill before the Oireachtas later this year. The Bill will repeal the relevant provisions of the 1931 Act and re-enact them with the amendments proposed by the Commission.
The Commission have also submitted their second report which deals with the question of extending the categories of persons entitled to reversionary leases and to buy out the fee simple as well as the question of whether lessees holding their dwellings from local authorities under purchase schemes should be given the right to purchase the fee simple. I have their recommendations under examination at present with a view to preparing new legislation. It may be possible to deal with these matters in the Bill on occupational tenancies.
The Commission are now proceeding with their main task, which is to examine the entire body of landlord and tenant law with a view to modernising and consolidating it. It is my hope that within the next few years it will be possible to have a comprehensive statute enacted which will repeal Deasy's Act of 1860 and the other Landlord and Tenant Acts and contain a full statement of all the statute law on this subject.
The Adoption Board made 1,493 orders in 1967, 315 more than in 1966, and this is the highest number ever. There has in fact been a steady increase in the number of orders being made in recent years. The proportion of children placed by Adoption Societies was 78 per cent, slightly more than last year's 77 per cent. I should like to place on record my appreciation of the excellent work that is being done by the Adoption Societies, of whom there are 21. Seven hundred and sixty-two of the orders made in 1967 were in respect of boys and 731 in respect of girls. The board continue to hold sittings outside Dublin so as to facilitate prospective adopters. Forty of the total of 98 meetings held during the year were held in various centres outside Dublin.
There has been little change during the years in the number of aliens registered as being resident here for three months or more, but the influx of visitors continues to increase at a rapid rate. More than 116,000 alien visitors came here in 1967 from places other than Britain or Northern Ireland as compared with 96,000 in 1966. Those figures do not, of course, include Irish citizens or British subjects. The increasing number of foreign visitors coming here creates problems for the immigration service. These problems are, however, under constant review by my Department in consultation with the other Government Departments concerned.
In 1967, 57 persons were naturalised as compared with 79 in 1966. This brings the total of all persons naturalised since 1935, when provision for naturalisation was made, to 2,617.
In 1967 the Film Censor examined 983 films with a total footage of 3,118,293. The number of films examined by the Censor in 1966 was 1,016 and the footage examined in that year was 3,084,525.
Of the total of 983 films which the Censor examined in 1967, 890 were passed, 71 were passed with cuts and 22 were rejected. He issued 86 limited certificates which were not the subject of appeals.
The Censorship of Films Appeal Board examined 31 films. Six of the appeals related to "limited certificates" issued by the Censor. Ten films were rejected by the Appeal Board. one was passed without cuts for general viewing and ten were passed for limited viewing, eight of them with cuts. In the case of the six appeals against the limited certificates issued by the censor, four were passed for general viewing and two were passed for limited viewing.
In all, 99 films were passed for viewing on "limited certificates", i.e., conditions were inserted prohibiting their exhibition to audiences under a stated age—the particular age being specified in each "limited certificate".
The Censorship of Publication Board examined 309 books and five periodicals in 1967. Fourteen books were examined as a result of formal complaints from members of the public and 295 books were referred to the board by officers of customs and excise. The board made 175 prohibition orders in respect of books and one in respect of a periodical.
Appeals were lodged with the Censorship of Publications Appeals Board in respect of three books. Two of the appeals were successful and consideration of the third is no longer necessary as the prohibition order made in respect of it has now expired under the Censorship of Publications Act, 1967, which became law on 11th July, 1967. That Act provides for a time limit of 12 years for prohibition orders made in respect of books on the ground that they are indecent or obscene and it revoked the provision in the 1946 Act that required an appeal against a prohibition order in respect of a book to be taken within 12 months.
Transfers of testamentary documents from the Principal and District Probate Registries and from the Courts were temporarily suspended in October, 1966, owing to building operations on the two-storey extension to the Public Record Office to provide additional accommodation for the Land Registry. Some testamentary and other miscellaneous documents have, however, been acquired since then.
The Irish Manuscripts Commission is continuing its work on the preparation for publication of the Calendar to the Council Book of 1581-'86, the list of political prisoners in Kilmainham Jail during the period 1789 to 1910, the two 16th century Munster surveys and the Record Commissioners' calendars of inquisitions for the 16th and 17th century Convert Rolls.
I now pass on to the Garda Síochána Vote. This shows an increase of £7,000 on the provision in the previous year's Estimate.
There is an increase of £78,000 in subhead A—salaries, wages and allowances. This increase arises mainly from the provision made for the appointment of traffic wardens as authorised by the Road Traffic Act, 1968, to carry out certain traffic duties connected with parking offences. The first batch of 20 wardens took up duty in Dublin at the beginning of October, the present number is 40, and I expect that by the end of the year the number will have risen to over 100. I am happy to say that the introduction of the new group has gone smoothly and that public reaction has been favourable.
I am also making arrangements to have typing and minor clerical work at the larger stations carried out by suitably qualified female personnel, thus making it possible to release Gardaí for outdoor police duties for which they are urgently needed. There is an additional provision of £18,000 in this subhead to meet increases in the rates of boot allowance, plain clothes allowance, detective allowance and transport and training allowances which have been granted in accordance with recommendations by the Garda Síochána Conciliation Council.
There is an increase of £31,000 in subhead B—travelling and incidental expenses. This is due mainly to the progressive improvement and extension of the radio service which has been taking place for some years and will continue.
The provision for Post Office services —subhead C—is up by over £50,000. This is due to the fact that there are outstanding charges for postal services for which provision has to be made this year.
The provision for superannuation— subhead G—shows an increase of £48,000. This is due to an increase in the number of pensioners and to the increase that was granted in pensions from 1st August, 1967.
The provision for Appropriations in Aid shows an increase of £197,000. This increase will come from the Road Fund to meet the rapidly rising costs of pay and equipment of the Garda Síochána engaged on road traffic duties. The increased provision will also cover the pay of the new traffic wardens.
The present Estimate for the Garda Síochána does not make provision for the 9 per cent salary increase recently granted to all ranks up to and including Chief Superintendent with effect from 1st June, 1968. This increase is on the same basis as the eleventh-round increases in the public services generally.
I have recently set up, at the request of the Garda Síochána Joint Representative Body, a Commission to inquire into and make recommendations to me in relation to Garda remuneration and conditions of service. We have been fortunate in obtaining for the Commission the voluntary services of four eminent persons under the chairmanship of Judge Conroy, and I should like to record my appreciation of their willingness to devote their skills and time to this onerous assignment.
As I indicated in a policy statement shortly after my appointment as Minister for Justice. I am engaged in a review of the present organisation and distribution of the Garda Síochána. It is clear that, if our police service is to maintain or improve on its standards of service, its strength must be increased fairly substantially or the existing structure must be overhauled so that the distribution of the force will reflect the needs of each locality and, in particular, requirements in relation to serious crime. As the annual cost of the force now stands at about £10,000,000 and as every additional Garda would cost a taxpayer about £1,000 a year, it is absolutely essential to make the best use of our existing manpower. All the members must be used to the best advantage in the prevention and detection of crime, the preservation of the peace and the handling of the serious problems arising from the huge increase in the number of vehicles on our roads, etc. It is estimated that, apart from Gardaí who are engaged full-time on road traffic duties, almost one-half of the time of the force as a whole is taken up on these duties. A review of the manpower situation is, therefore, a matter of urgency.
It is important also to keep under constant review the question of providing the force with up-to-date equipment. The mechanisation of the force is proceeding at a steady rate. There are now 272 motor-cars and 219 motor-cycles in the Garda fleet, as against 169 cars and 19 motor-cycles 10 years ago. I have already mentioned the provision for additional radio equipment. There has been a three-fold expansion in the radio service in the past four years. This expansion has brought the service to many provincial towns throughout the country. Personal pocket radios, which have been introduced in Dublin, have been a great success. This service will be intensified in Dublin and expanded to other large centres in the near future.
Modern office equipment of various kinds is also being provided. This includes an electronic punch-card system which should improve the efficiency of the Central Criminal Records Office. An up-to-date copier is being provided which will facilitate the keeping of criminal records and the supplying of information from Headquarters to the Gardaí at local level. A number of portable recording units are also being obtained. These will replace the traditional notebooks in the case of Gardaí who have to make on-the-spot records at the scene of crimes and traffic accidents.
I regret to say that in 1967 the crime figures increased again. In the year ended 30th September, 1967, 20,558 indictable offences were recorded as against 19,029 in the previous year. The next highest figures were in 1964 (17,700) and in 1943 (17,305).
Of the total of 20,558 indictable offences, 12,170 were committed in the Dublin Metropolitan Area and 8,388 in the rest of the country.
The increase in crime gives me cause for serious concern. It is, nevertheless, true that the incidence of indictable crime in this country is still low by comparison with what is happening in many other countries in Europe and further afield. It is a cause for satisfaction that our detection rate still continues at the high level of 64 per cent, which is away beyond what is achieved in any other country the statistics of which we have studied.
In this connection I would remind the House that larcenies, generally, even where the value of the money or goods stolen is trivial, are indictable offences. The figures for indictable crime are invariably swollen by, for instance, larcenies of pedal bicycles, for which, incidentally, it is very difficult to get evidence against the culprits. In 1967, 1,936 bicycles were reported as stolen and proceedings were instituted in 316 cases only.
Those convicted of indictable crimes last year numbered 9,521 and of this total 31 per cent were under 17 and 57 per cent under 21 years of age. The comparable figure for 1966 was 9,220, of whom 34 per cent were under 17 and 59 per cent under 21.
In the year ended 30th September, 1967, the number of persons charged with summary offences was 164,068 as compared with 150,213 in 1966, a steep rise which is in accordance with the trend of recent years. Road traffic offences continue to constitute by far the greatest category—some 123,000 persons were prosecuted for road traffic offences in 1967. Nearly 97,000 fine-on-the-spot notices were issued for contraventions of the parking bye-laws and similar offences and in slightly less than 15,000 of those cases there were prosecutions. In the Road Traffic Act, 1968, provision has been made for the taking over of "fine-on-the-spot" duties from the Gardaí by a special corps of wardens. This will permit the Gardaí to concentrate on their primary duty of detecting and preventing serious crime. A number of wardens have already been recruited and have taken up duty in Dublin city. Further appointments will be made.
No difficulty has been met in the operation of the statutory arrangements for the backing of Irish warrants of arrest in Britain and Northern Ireland, and for the backing of British and Northern Ireland warrants here. In 1967, 128 warrants, 23 of them from Northern Ireland, were received for execution here and 83 warrants were issued from here, nine of them to Northern Ireland. So far no warrants have been received from any of the other countries who are parties to the European Convention on Extradition, nor have any warrants issued from this country to any of them.
Before I pass on from this Vote the House will no doubt be interested to know that since the 1st August, 1968, a simpler and more direct method of payment of the expenses of State witnesses in criminal prosecutions has been in operation. The previous method of payment was unsatisfactory involving as it did three Departments of State, local authorities, the Chief State Solicitor, local State Solicitors, County Registrars and the Garda Síochána. Under the new system the bulk of witnesses claims are paid locally by the Garda Síochána and a relatively small number of contentious claims are referred to my Department for payment. This has had the effect of expediting payment and will ultimately relieve local authorities and all others of any responsibilities in the matter. From the 1st April next year these expenses will be borne by the Garda Síochána Vote.
The next item in the list of Estimates, the Vote for Prisons, is for a sum of £449,000 which shows a net decrease of £9,500 in the Vote for 1967/68. The changes in the Vote as compared with the previous financial year are in the main reflected in subheads B and C where increases in the cost of victualling, clothing, fuel, etc., due to an anticipated increase in the prison population, and additional requirements for escort and travelling, as aresult of higher transport charges and subsistence rates, are more than off-set by a decrease in the provision for the maintenance of prisoners in district mental hospitals.
There is also a decrease of £2,000 in the provision for materials for the manufacturing department and farm: stocks in hand make it possible to reduce purchase of materials below that which would normally be necessary. The saving in the financial requirements for the maintenance of prisoners in district mental hospitals is the result of a ruling of the Supreme Court that the statutory provisions, which enabled the Minister for Justice to transfer to district mental hospitals from prisons persons who had been certified to be insane while on remand in custody from the district court, were legally operative only in respect of the period of remand ordered by the court and that persons so removed and detained in hospital after the expiry of the period of remand ceased to remain within the jurisdiction of the court. As a consequence of this ruling the maintenance of a number of patients in the hospitals ceased to be the responsibility of the Minister for Justice.
The Estimate provides for a daily average population of 580, as against 570 in 1967-68. The increased provision is due mainly to the impact on daily inmate figures of the larger numbers of offenders receiving long or fairly long term sentences. As compared with the year 1966 there was an increase of 95 in the number of offenders who were given sentences of imprisonment or detention of six months and upwards in 1967, the figures being 846 and 751 respectively.
The total number of committals of persons under both sentences of imprisonment and of detention in St. Patrick's Institution during 1967 was 2,789 as against 2,528 for 1966. Of this number of 2,789, 833 were young male offenders in the 16 to 21 age group, of whom 635 were sentenced to detention and 198 were committed to prison.
This shows an increase of six over 1966 when 616 youths received sentences of detention while 211 others were sent to prison. The increase is small in itself and might indeed be taken to reflect favourably on our preventive measures to combat juvenile crime when regard is had to the increasing population in the young adult age groups: according to the census returns, the number of young males between 17 years and 21 years had increased from 82,000 in 1960 to 99,000 in 1966.
Because of inadequate accommodation it was not possible to transfer from prisons to St. Patrick's young offenders who might derive more benefit from treatment in the latter institution and this has made it necessary to explore further the question of additional or alternative accommodation for the inmates of St. Patrick's Institution. Moreover, the pressure on space in St. Patrick's has not made it possible to segregate inmates to the extent that one would like and has inhibited improvements in the institution's educational, vocational and recreational activities. Up to the present, the efforts which have been made to obtain a suitable site within reasonable distance of Dublin for the erection of a new St. Patrick's have met with no success. Some improvement in the situation materialised in August of this year, when a State property in Shanganagh, which had until then been used as a residential college, was made available to my Department. The buildings stand in some twenty acres of ground and with some minor structural adaptations can accommodate 50 to 60 boys.
It is my intention to operate the new undertaking as a training centre for suitable first offenders and for selected long term inmates who show promise of improvement and of responding to guidance. What I have in mind is that training will be imparted in building construction, woodwork, decorating, vehicle driving and horticulture, which will help the boys to secure and retain worthwhile employment on release. Already a start has been made there with compensatory education to overcome the more obvious results of neglected schooling.
Instruction in woodwork has commenced also under the guidance of a vocational teacher. Vocational instruction will be extended shortly to some of the other skills I have outlined. There are now about 30 boys in residence and this number is gradually being increased to the full complement. The whole project is still only at a developing stage and legislation will probably be necessary to put the project on a long term formal basis, but by next year I expect that my hopes for Shanganagh will have materialised to the full.
The availability of this additional accommodation will allow of the introduction of a re-planned educational programme for St. Patrick's itself involving the appointment of an educational psychologist and the employment of additional instruction staff, aided by a corps of voluntary workers with teaching experience. In the latter connection I am pleased to record my appreciation of an offer, which I have gladly accepted, from the students of St. Patrick's Training College, Drumcondra, to participate in providing compensatory teaching.
I am glad to say that the prison welfare work and analogous services continue to operate satisfactorily. During 1967, as a result of the efforts of the prison staff and the prison welfare officers, employment during their sentences was secured for 26 prisoners who were granted daily temporary release to take up the employment obtained for them. The earnings of these prisoners in respect of their pre-discharge employment, after deductions for tax, insurance, etc., amounted to £2,250 approximately. A sum of £739 was contributed to their dependants; £444 was spent on tools and equipment, travelling between prison and places of employment and out of pocket expenses; expenses for special hostel meals and comforts accounted for £555, leaving something over £500 for the prisoners themselves on discharge.
In St. Patrick's Institution 35 inmates were granted daily temporary release for employment while serving their sentences of detention and, with one exception, all the inmates fulfilled the conditions of their temporary release. In addition to release for employment, temporary release was granted to 26 prisoners and to 39 inmates of St. Patrick's during the year for other purposes—Christmas holidays, domestic difficulties, family illnesses, interviews for employment, driving tuition; 12 inmates qualified as drivers during the year.
The development of the probation and after-care service on a voluntary basis is, thanks to the willing co-operation of the community at large and particularly the well-known charitable and religious organisations, also progressing in a most satisfactory manner. Voluntary workers are now available in upwards of 100 centres outside Dublin to give assistance to the courts in the supervision of young offenders and to help in the after-care of those discharged from industrial and reformatory schools and penal institutions.
In this connection I wish to mention particularly a project of the Cork Council of St. Vincent de Paul, namely, the establishment of a probation hostel for homeless boys or boys from bad or broken homes. The presence of this hostel has made it possible for the local courts to make probation orders with a residential condition in suitable cases where otherwise the alternative would have been to commit them to institutions. An annual grant of £750 is now being paid to this council.
Another project which is proving its worth is the Garda juvenile liaison officer scheme. The scheme which has been operating for some time in Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Waterford has now been extended to Clonmel, Drogheda, Dundalk, Galway, Kilkenny, Sligo, Tralee and Wexford. Since the scheme started in September, 1963 and up to the end of last September, 3,124 juveniles had come under the care and supervision of the Gardaí participating in the work. Of this number, 345 or 11 per cent have since become involved in further offences.
Apart from the numbers of the Garda force attached to the juvenile liaison unit, a large number of Gardaí continue to participate in a most praiseworthy and voluntary way in the organisation and day to day running of over 200 boys' clubs throughout the country.
It would be remiss of me to let this occasion pass without recording my indebtedness to the statutory visiting committees, the recognised societies engaged in welfare work, the voluntary organisations, the many private individuals and the employers whose generous efforts and ready co-operation proved so helpful a factor in the discharge of my responsibilities for the treatment of prisons offenders.
The next Vote is that for the courts. At £609,000 it shows a net decrease of £7,000 over the year 1967/68. The gross vote shows an increase of £11,550 which is accounted for by a small increase in district court staff, normal increments and an increase in mileage allowances. This increase is offset by an increase in appropriations-in-aid due to an increase in receipts from fines and fees.
The Rules Committees of the District Court, Circuit Court and Superior Court have been busy during the past year. The District Court Rules Committee continues its major task in connection with a general revision of the existing district court rules and additionally, with my concurrence, made the District Court (Criminal Procedure Act, 1967) Rules 1967 setting out the procedure to be followed in the preliminary examination of indictable offences under the Criminal Procedure Act, 1967.
The Circuit Court Rules Committee made the Circuit Court Rules (No. 2) 1967 prescribing new scales of costs and fees and the Circuit Court Rules (No. 3) 1967 providing for an increase in costs in certain cases settled before entry. The Rules received my concurrence. The Committee have also drafted new Circuit Court Rules on contentious business for the purposes of the Succession Act, 1965.
The Superior Courts Rules Committee made the Rules of the Superior Courts (No. 2), 1967, providing for a number of miscellaneous amendments to existing Rules and revision of costs in certain cases. Those Rules received my concurrence. The committee have drafted two sets of rules dealing respectively with contentious and noncontentious probate business, which are necessary under the Succession Act, 1965. These are being examined in consultation with the committee and in conjunction with draft rules on contentious business submitted by the Circuit Court Rules Committee.
I should like again to pay a special tribute to the judges of the several Courts who are voluntarily assisting the work of the Department of Justice in what I might describe as personal, non-judicial capacities. I refer to the judges and justices who are serving on the Bankruptcy Committee, the Censorship of Films Appeal Board, the Censorship of Publications Board and its Appeal Board, the Committee inquiring into Court Practice and Procedures, the Commission inquiring into the law relating to landlord and tenant and ground rents, a committee formed during the year under review which is making inquiries relating to reform of substantive law and the committee of inquiry into the pay and conditions of service of the Garda Síochána.
The extent to which I am indebted to the Judiciary in these respects is very great.
Estimate No. 24 is that for the Land Registry and Registry of Deeds. The figure of £299,000 for the year 1968-69 represents a decrease of £12,800 as compared with 1967-68. The decrease is accounted for mainly by the replacement of senior by junior officers and by a decrease in Post Office charges.
As forecast last year, the reversal in 1966 of the progressively upward trend in the volume of business coming into the Land Registry in recent years was short-lived. Business, in almost all the various categories handled by the Registry, increased again in 1967, and is continuing to increase in the current year. Dealings, for example, which had fallen from a record figure of 37,052 in 1965 to 33,875 in 1966 rose again in 1967 to 34,693. The indications are that the intake of dealings this year will be of the order of 40,000.
In the case of the Registry of Deeds the progressively upward trend in the number of registrations which had declined in 1965 and 1966 was also resumed in 1967, the number being 29,446 as compared with 27,879 in 1965 and 25,411 in 1966. Applications for searches also continued to increase, the figure for 1967 being 5,463 as compared with 5,324 in 1966.
With regard to the provision of additional accommodation to meet the needs of the Land Registry in the years immediately ahead, the construction work on a two-storey extension over the Public Record Office which commenced in May, 1966, has been completed and the new building is now in the process of being occupied. This should solve fully the problem of accommodation. There remain, however, the difficulties of recruiting and maintaining the necessary staff in all the branches of the Land Registry, with the result that delays are still giving rise to some complaints. I have arranged for a critical examination of the organisation and procedures in the Land Registry as the provision of a prompt and efficient service is one of my top priorities.
The final Vote makes provision for the Office of Charitable Donations and Bequests. The estimate for 1968-69 is £13,000, that is £350 more than the total provided for this service in 1967-68. The increase is accounted for principally by normal incremental progression.
The useful and valuable work of the Commissioners continued during the year. Cash amounting to £30,455 and stocks to the value of £17,635 were transferred to the Commissioners during the year 1967, and on 31st December last the nominal value of investments standing in their name was £2,064,295.
It remains for me to express my sincere thanks to the members of the various voluntary boards and commissions which are associated with my Department for their valuable services during the year. One of the things that impressed me deeply since my appointment as Minister for Justice is the extent of this unpaid public service and the manner in which persons concerned carry out their duties.
I commend the Estimate to the House.