§ MR. J. MACVEAGHTo ask Mr. Attorney-General for Ireland whether he can state what qualifications are necessary for persons seeking to be appointed Commissioners for taking affidavits for use in the High Court of Justice in Ireland; whether his attention has been called to the fact that in some cases Dublin agents of country solicitors take affidavits in business connected with their agencies, that solicitors who are commissioners take affidavits in business transacted in their offices, and that law clerks who act as commissioners take affidavits in cases pending in the offices of their employers; and whether he will cause instructions to be issued on these matters.
(Answered by Mr. Cherry.) I have referred this Question to the Lord-Chancellor, who informs me that no qualification is prescribed by statute for the appointment of Commissioner for taking affidavits in Ireland, except in the case of the Dublin Commissioners, who must be solicitors, and who are required by the Lord-Chancellor to have been in practice for a period of at least three years prior to their appointment. The rules of the Supreme Court provide that no affidavit shall be sufficient if sworn before the solicitor for the party on whose behalf the affidavit is to be used, or before the partner, agent, correspondent, or 1253 clerk of such solicitor. No case of a violation of this rule by a Commissioner has come under the notice of the Lord-Chancellor. It would be open to the party against whom such an affidavit might be used to object to its sufficiency or the breach of duty by the Commissioner could be brought under the notice of the Lord-Chancellor.