§ MR. SWIFT MACNEILLI beg to ask Mr. Attorney Goneral for Ireland whether the attention of the Irish justiciary has been directed to the exercise in Ireland by all counsel representing the Attorney-General in criminal cases of a general right of reply, even in cases where no evidence on behalf of the accused has been produced, whereas in England, by a resolution of the English justiciary in December, 1884, in criminal cases in which the prosecution is conducted on behalf of the Crown, where no evidence is offered for the accused, the right of reply is restricted to the Attorney-General and the Solicitor-General alone when prosecuting on behalf of the Crown in person; and will he state the reason for this dissimilarity between the practice in criminal prosecutions in England and Ireland.
§ THE ATTORNEY - GENERAL FOR IRELAND (Mr. CHERRY, Liverpool, Exchange)The difference in the practice of the Criminal Courts in England and Ireland referred to by the hon. Member has not, so far as I am aware, recently engaged the attention of the Irish Judiciary as a body, though all the Judges are of course aware of it. I shall be glad, if the hon. Member desires it, to bring the matter under the notice of the Judges of the King's Bench Division with a view to ascertaining whether they would consider it wise, in the interests of justice, to adopt the resolution passed by the English Judiciary in 1884, and so assimilate the practice in the two countries.