HC Deb 29 August 1895 vol 36 cc1132-3
MR. MAURICE HEALY

I beg to ask Mr. Attorney General for Ireland, with reference to the recent conviction of the Irish Board of Works at the Castleconnell Petty Sessions, for having failed to provide a Queen's gap in two eel weirs on the Shannon, and the fine of £1,820 imposed on them, whether the point for decision, when the case came before the Queen's Bench Division, was whether s. 41 of the 5th and 6th Vic. c. 106, and certain other enactments, had been impliedly repealed by the 9th section of the 26th and 27th Vic. c. 114; whether the Board of Works contended that they had not been so repealed, and that their express repeal by the Statute Law Revision Act, 1892, did not affect existing rights or liabilities; and, whether the decision of the Queen's Bench Division, that the enactments in question had been impliedly repealed by the 26th and 27th Vic. c. 114, was based upon their express repeal by the Statute Law Revision Act, 1892?

THE ATTORNEY GENERAL FOR IRELAND (Mr. J. ATKINSON,) Londonderry, N.

As this question in effect asks me to give my interpretation of a judgment of the Queen's Bench Division of the High Court of Justice in Ireland, I respectfully submit that it ought not to be put to me, and that I ought not to be required to answer it.

MR. MAURICE HEALY

My question was not what is the right hon. Gentleman's interpretation, but as to what the Judges said, and the interpretation they gave.

MR. SPEAKER

As I understand the question which the hon. Member now asks, it is as to what is the point in a certain case in the Queen's Bench Division; and what was the argument for the defendants and what were the grounds of the decision of the Judges. These are matters which are not specially within the information and knowledge of the Law Officers of the Crown.

MR. MAURICE HEALY

said, that being so, he would ask the right hon. Gentleman whether, in view of the importance of this, he would procure a copy of the Judges' decision in the case and lay it upon the Table of the House?

THE ATTORNEY GENERAL FOR IRELAND (Mr. J. ATKINSON, Londonderry, N.)

said, that if the hon. Member would give notice of the question he would consider it.