§ MR. CONDON (Tipperary, E.)To ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether the attention of the Lord Chancellor has been called to the necessity for the appointment of additional justices of the peace in the County of Tipperary, and especially in the Cashel district; whether he is aware that at the last court day in Cashel the suitors and their solicitors were kept waiting for some hours, and that the proceedings were eventually abandoned, owing to no justice of the peace or resident magistrate attending; whether he is aware that in the Cashel district, which 1293 is Nationalist, there is no popular magistrate except ex-officio; whether he can state if the Lord Chancellor's attention has been called to this condition of the magisterial bench; and whether he intends to deal with the matter immediately.
(Answered by Mr. Birrell.) The Lord Chancellor informs me that he has from time to time been considering the question of the appointment of additional magistrates in the several districts of the County Tipperary, including the Cashel district, and within the last two years he has appointed twenty-nine magistrates in that county. There are now 230 magistrates on the roll of the county, of whom twelve have been authorised to attend the Cashel Petty Sessions, in addition to the resident magistrate and the chairman of the local district council. Two of the twelve above-mentioned were appointed in August last. The Lord Chancellor had not been informed of the adjournment of cases referred to for want of the attendance of magistrates, but he will inquire into the matter.