HC Deb 25 August 1883 vol 283 c1848
MR. HEALY

asked Mr. Attorney General for Ireland, If he is aware that Br. Darley, the County Court Judge for Wicklow, at Revision Sessions, ruled that if a man succeeds his father or mother in a rateable holding, having been twelve months or more in bona fide possession, having paid his rent and rates in his own name during that period, he is ineligible for the Voters' List unless his father or mother has bequeathed it to him by will or deed; whether it is the fact that a man taking a house or farm of the required rateable value is put on as a matter of course if he has been twelve months in bona fide possession; and, if he can say what the law is?

MR. TREVELYAN

My right hon. and learned Friend the Attorney General for Ireland has not seen any report of the decision in question, and desires me to say that if the ruling of the Revising Barrister be disputed it can be questioned on appeal; and that it would be improper to give an official statement of the law, which is contained in Statutes accessible to all. I have heard from Br. Barley, who states that he decides all such cases according to the principles laid down by the Court of Appeal, and that his decisions have never been appealed against.