§ 16. Mr. LYNCHasked the Chief Secretary for Ireland whether he can give the statutory authority which enables a resident magistrate in Ireland to exclude from the hearing of a case justices of the peace who are actually sitting on the bench with him?
§ Mr. DUKEI am advised that the authority upon which a magistrate who isseised of a case within his jurisdiction may proceed to dispose of it to the exclusion of other magistrates, who may subsequently claim to sit with him, is founded upon decisions of the Courts in England and in Ireland.
§ Mr. DUKEYes, certainly. The decissions of the Court of competent authority are the law, both in Ireland and this country.
§ Mr. DILLONDo we understand the right hon. Gentleman to say that the law in Ireland is that a resident magistrate can set aside the whole bench and try a case by himself whenever he likes?
§ Mr. DUKENo; no propositions of that kind has been made. The only proposition for which I am responsible in the matter is that if a resident magistrate in Ireland of competent jurisdiction is seised of the trial at the hearing of the case it is according to law for him to proceed to exercise jurisdiction. notwithstanding that other magistrates may claim, after he has become seised of jurisdiction, to come in and take part.
§ Sir E. CARSONIs not the law exactly the same in the two countries?
Mr. HAZLETONAre we to understand that a resident magistrate is entitled to become seised of a case by hearing it privately in his own house or in a police barracks?
§ Mr. DILLONIn view of the answer to the question of the right hon. Gentleman 1593 (Sir E. Carson), is it not a fact that there are no resident magistrates in England but only the ordinary magistrates?
§ Mr. DUKEThe answer I have made does not draw any distinction between a resident magistrate and another magisstrate in Ireland. I stated what I am advised and what I believe, as having some experience of the law, to be the law in this matter, both in England and in Ireland. It does not depend at all upon the capacity of the magistrate as a resident magistrate. He is a justice on the same footing as other justices, except where he has a special statutory jurisdiction. This matter does not depend upon Statute but upon the general law with regard to magistrates as a body, putting resident magistrates upon the same footing as all the others.
§ Mr. DEVLINIs it in the power of the Crown to allow prosecutors to select the tribunal before which persons are to be tried?
§ Mr. DUKEIf there is a particular case in which it is suggested that has been done I think a question should be put to me upon notice. It is very difficult to make an answer accurately in regard to an abstract proposition of law without knowing previously what the facts are.
§ Mr. LYNCHAs there exists here a means of defeating the ends of justice in Ireland, will the right hon. Gentleman bring in legislation to remedy at once this anomalous state of affairs?
§ Mr. SPEAKERWe have already had eight supplementary questions.