I beg to move the Second Reading of the Dáil Eireann Courts (Winding Up) Bill. The object of this Bill is to transfer to the High Court of Justice, as from 1st April, 1925, the powers which are at present vested in the Commissioners who were appointed to wind-up the business of the Dáil Eireann Courts.
It will be remembered that by Act No. 36 of 1923 a Judicial Commission with very extensive powers was set up to ratify and enforce decrees properly given by the Dáil Eireann Courts, to correct mistakes, if any, made by these courts, and to conclude the hearing of cases which were left unfinished when the authority of the Dáil Eireann Courts was withdrawn. This first Act did not deal at all with Land Settlement cases. The work under this first Act has been practically completed, and the figures are perhaps of some interest. 4,961 decrees have been registered, i.e., 1,657 of Dáil Parish Courts, 2,808 of Dáil District Courts, 486 of the Dáil Circuit Courts, and 10 of the Dáil Supreme Courts. There remain some appeals to be heard and some warrants to be issued, and the papers generally require to be codified and indexed, so far as that process has been postponed owing to pressure of more urgent work Broadly speaking, however, all that can be done by the Commission, under the Act of 1923, will have been done by the end of March. It is impossible that any new cases should arise, as the date for registration has long passed.
It may be asked why it is necessary to transfer the authority of the Commissioners at all, why the Commission should not simply be allowed to expire and leave no successor. It is, however, necessary that the powers of the Commissioners should be preserved in some manner for an indefinite time, as it will be readily understood that some of the cases dealt with are of such a nature that they cannot ever be said to be definitely completed—a perpetual injunction against trespass, for instance, would be one example of what I mean— and in general it will be clear that it is not enough that the decisions of the Commissioners should be on record. It is also necessary that there should some permanent authority, authorised to enforce these decisions one year hence, or ten years hence, if necessary. The proper authority is the one proposed in the Bill, the High Court of Justice. So far then as the original work of the Commission is concerned the position is briefly that that work will be completed before the 31st March, 1925, and it is proposed that the High Court shall inherit the powers of the Commission in order to prevent the decisions of the Commission from becoming inoperative owing to the absence of any enforcing authority.
Another and an even more important reason for the transfer to the High Court of the powers of the Commissioners presents itself when the Land Settlement aspect of the Commission is considered. As I have stated, the Act which set up the Commission— No. 36 of 1923—gave the Commission no jurisdiction in Land Settlement cases, and what I have said up to this point, as to the work of the Commission, has no reference to Land Settlement cases. It is not necessary to state again here the reasons which led to the original decision to omit Land Settlement cases from the first Act, nor the reasons which led subsequently to a reversal of that decision. Those matters were before the Dáil when the Amending Act was introduced. By that Act—No. 32 of 1924, enacted in July last—the powers of the Commissioners were extended to cover Land Settlement cases. A date was fixed, the 14th November last, up to which applications might be received for the registration of Land Settlement decrees. About 100 applications were received, of which about fifty appear, so far as they have yet been examined, to be cases in which there is at least a prima facie case for registration, and about twenty have been registered. The period for application having expired, it is therefore known definitely that the Land Settlement aspect has resolved itself into the examination of these applications for registration of decrees or orders of Land Settlement Courts, the registering of such as are found to be prima facic in order, the hearing of appeals against such registration and the enforcement of the registered decrees. This work is certain to be spread over a considerable period and to necessitate the employment of a staff exceeding, both in numbers and technical knowledge, the small staff which is at present engaged on the Commission. Hitherto the Commission has dealt with cases where the question involved was generally whether A. owed B. a definite sum of money, or what damages should properly be paid by A. to B. in respect of some injury done to B. In these cases the Court could come rapidly to a decision and the under-sheriff could enforce the decision. if necessary, by the simple process of seizure. The typical Land Settlement cases are on a very different footing.
Questions arise of enquiries into dealings with trust property extending over several years and lands have to be inspected and divided. It was clearly realised when the Amending Act of July last was passed, that the Commission would be unable to carry through those cases unless its existence were prolonged and its staff strengthened, and the reason why in face of these considerations the business was imposed on the Commission was that it was desirable to act quickly. The High Court was in a state of transition and it was thought that the best course was to allow the Commission, with its experience of other Dáil Court work, to make a preliminary survey of the field, to decide any urgent questions, and then, when the probable scope of the business was known and the more immediate difficulties solved or postponed, to transfer the work to the High Court so far as the work was judicial, and to the Land Commission so far as the machinery side—inspecting and valuing—was concerned. That is, in fact, the effect of the present Bill and the course followed appears to have been the best that could have been adopted.
Summarising, this is a Bill, the object of which is to put an end to the existence of the Dáil Eireann Courts (Winding Up) Commission as a separate court as from the 1st April, 1925, by transferring to the High Court of Justice the powers now vested in the Commission. The business transferred falls into two sections——
(1) the decrees of the ordinary Dáil Courts, and
(2) the decrees of the Land Settlement Courts.
The former business has been almost finished and what is being transferred to the High Court on that side is a mass of records in good order. On the other hand, only the surface of the Land Settlement work has been touched and the work taken over on this side will occupy the Land Commission for a considerable time.
I may perhaps claim for the Government that it has fully carried out its obligations towards litigants in the old Dáil Courts. No person who has not actually seen the records of these courts as they came into our custody can easily realise the task that was inherited in this respect. It was our duty to reduce these records into order and to solve as best we could the formidable difficulty which inevitably arose from the fact that for more than a year two opposing sets of courts, neither recognising the jurisdiction of the other, were in full swing, and that we inherited both sets of courts. We may claim. I think, to have attacked this problem with a certain amount of resolution. The Saorstát Constitution had not been in force for nine months before a Judicial Commission with full statutory powers was at work on the problem, a Commission of four, two of whom were judges of the Dáil Supreme Courts and the remaining two of whom are judges of the Circuit Court. These Commissioners and their successors not only held court in Dublin almost continuously during the last 18 months, but went out on several circuits, and there is no place in the Saorstát so remote that its inhabitants were not afforded a fair opportunity of appearing before the Commissioners. All that was, of course, an obvious duty on the part of the Government. but I am perhaps entitled to point out that these things were not done without some expenditure and without some organisation, and that they were done, or at least commenced, at a time when we might have pleaded with some show of reason that we had very little money to spend and very many urgent calls on whatever organising capacity was at our disposal. I move the Second Reading of the Bill.