HC Deb 06 April 1911 vol 23 cc2414-5
Captain CRAIG

asked the Chief Secretary whether Mr. Patrick Scott, J.P., of Scribbagh Garrison, county Fermanagh, is the same person that has repeatedly been fined for drunkenness in Belleek Petty Sessions court, in which he now adjudicates, and elsewhere in the county; in particular was he so fined at Belleek in May, 1909, and at Enniskillen on the 29th November, 1910; and will he suggest to the Lord Chancellor of Ireland the desirability of relieving Mr. Scott of his duties as a justice?

Mr. BIRRELL

The Lord Chancellor informs me that Mr. Patrick Scott is not in the ordinary Commission of Peace, but became an ex-officio magistrate for the county Fermanagh, in October, 1909, by virtue of his election to the office of chairman of the Ballyshannon No. 2 Rural District Council. On 29th November, 1910, Mr. Scott was brought before a magistrate out of Petty Sessions at Enniskillen, and was fined in the sum of 1s. on a charge of intoxication. That matter was reported to the Lord Chancellor, and, having considered the circumstances of the case, he did not consider it incumbent upon him to remove Mr. Scott from the magistracy. No other charge of intoxication appears to have been brought against Mr. Scott since he became a magistrate, and a conviction for intoxication prior to the election of a chairman of a council, and his becoming a magistrate, has never been regarded as a ground for interference.

Captain CRAIG

Are there not in that particular locality hundreds and thousands of respectable people fit to be justices of the peace, and will the right hon. Gentleman take steps to see that this man is removed, and someone of respectability put in his place?

Mr. BIRRELL

That is a matter entirely for the Lord Chancellor, and not for me.

Captain CRAIG

Is the right hon. Gentleman not aware that the Estimates each year are seriously increased by having to take away from this class of magistrates the cases which are put before them, in order to have a fair trial in Belfast?

Mr. BIRRELL

I do not know why we should, on account of this one act of impropriety assume anything as to this Gentleman's general conduct.