MR. JOHN ELLISasked the Solicitor General for Ireland how often the Lord Chancellor had sat in the Irish Court of Appeal within the past 12 months in cases in which Divisional or Resident Magistrates were parties; whether the decision of the Appeal Court in each case was in favour of the magistrate; and was there any precedent in England for a Member of the Cabinet sitting as Lord Chancellor in the Court of Appeal in cases of like nature?
§ *MR. MADDENThe Lord Chancellor of Ireland is, under the Judicature Act, the statutable President of the Court of Appeal. This Court has no jurisdiction in criminal cases, and can only hear cases conversant with civil rights. The Lord Chancellor, like all his Predecessors, has fulfilled his duty by sitting in the Court in all cases which come before it. It would not, I submit, be proper to make inquiries of the nature suggested in the first and second paragraphs of the question. The nature and result of the cases which come before the Court can be ascertained by any person who desires it by means of the reports which ordinarily appear in the public Press. As regards the last paragraph, I have to state that the Lord Chancellor of England invariably presides in the House of Lords, without regard to who may be the parties to the cases which come before him, and (when his other duties permit) in the Privy Council and Court of Appeal.