District Justices (Temporary Provisions) Act, 1923

What is this act about?

This law establishes temporary provisions for appointing District Justices to hold courts of summary jurisdiction and makes related changes to the law concerning these courts. It aims to set up a new system for local justice in Saorstát Eireann.

Who it applies to: Individuals appointed as District Justices, Peace Commissioners, and District Court Clerks; Anyone involved in legal proceedings that would have previously been heard in Petty Sessions.

At a glance

Country: Ireland
Area of law: Procedural law
Articles: 12
Source: irishstatutebook.ie
Text retrieved: 2026-06-17
Explanation updated: 2026-07-07

What does this act regulate?

The appointment, duties, and salaries of District Justices.
The re-arrangement of Petty Sessions Districts into new Court Districts.
The appointment and powers of Peace Commissioners.
The appointment and duties of Clerks of District Courts.

Who does this act apply to?

Individuals appointed as District Justices, Peace Commissioners, and District Court Clerks.
Anyone involved in legal proceedings that would have previously been heard in Petty Sessions.

What are the key points?

District Justices must be Barristers-at-Law of at least two years' standing or Solicitors of the Supreme Court.
District Justices hold District Courts and have the same powers, jurisdiction, and authority as a Justice of the Peace sitting in Petty Sessions had before December 6, 1922.
The Minister will divide Saorstát Eireann (excluding the County of the City of Dublin and part of County Dublin) into Court Districts, replacing Petty Sessions Districts.
Peace Commissioners can sign summonses and warrants, administer oaths, and commit dangerous lunatics, but a District Justice must sign summonses against Civic Guard members.

Procedural law

Licensing (Renewal of Licences) Act, 1923

Misuse of Drugs Act, 1984

Children Act, 1997

Courts (No. 2) Act, 1986

Animals Act, 1985

Regional Technical Colleges (Amendment) Act, 1994

Irish Legal Terms Act, 1945

Industrial Development (Encouragement of External Investment) Act, 1958

Procedural law

Legal text

Contents (12)

Section 1
Section 2
Section 3
Section 4
Section 5
Section 6
Section 7
Section 8
Section 9
Section 10
Section 11
Section 12

District Justices (Temporary Provisions) Act, 1923 Skip to content Disclaimer Feedback Helpdesk Gaeilge Léim go dtí an t-ábhar Séanadh Aiseolas Deasc chabhrach English Gaeilge English Produced by the Office of the Attorney General Táirgthe ag Oifig an Ard-Aighne Home Legislation Acts of the Oireachtas Statutory Instruments Pre-1922 Legislation Constitution External Resources Bills (Houses of the Oireachtas) Iris Oifigiúil / Official Gazette Revised Acts (LRC) Classified List of Legislation (LRC) Translations (acts.ie) Translations (Houses of the Oireachtas) Government Publications for Sale EU Law (EUR-Lex) FAQ Disclaimer Feedback Helpdesk Search Baile Reachtaíocht Achtanna an Oireachtais Ionstraimí Reachtúla Reachtaíocht Réamh-1922 Bunreacht Acmhainní Seachtracha Billí (Tithe an Oireachtais) Iris Oifigiúil Achtanna Athbhreithnithe (CAD) (An Coimisiún um Athchóiriú an Dlí) Liosta Rangaithe Reachtaíochta Aistriúcháin (achtanna.ie) Aistriúcháin (Tithe an Oireachtais) Foilseacháin Rialtais ar Díol Dlí AE (EUR-Lex) CCanna (Ceisteanna Coitianta) Séanadh Aiseolas Deasc chabhrach Cuardach TitleTeideal Year(s) or rangeBliain nó blianta nó raon TypeCineál All Legislation Acts Statutory Instruments Advanced SearchCuardach Casta HomeBaile ActsAchtanna 1923 District Justices (Temporary Provisions) Act, 1923 District Justices (Temporary Provisions) Act, 1923 Permanent Page URL View by SectionAmharc de réir Ailt View Full ActAmharc ar an Acht Iomlán Bill History Stair Bille Commencement, Amendments, SIs made under the Act Tosach Feidhme, Leasuithe, IRí arna ndéanamh faoin Acht Print Full ActPriontáil an tAcht Iomlán Number 6.

DISTRICT JUSTICES (TEMPORARY PROVISIONS) ACT, 1923.

ARRANGEMENT OF SECTIONS Section

Section 1

Appointment of District Justices.

Section 2

Duties of District Justices.

Section 3

Re-arrangement of Petty Sessions Districts.

Section 4

Appointment of Peace Commissioners.

Section 5

Appointment of Clerks of District Courts.

Section 6

Power to extend time in certain cases.

Section 7

Civic Guard to act in place of Royal Irish Constabulary.

Section 8

Increase of Petty Sessions Fees.

Section 9

Confirmation of appointments and acts of existing District Justices.

Section 10

Adaptation of enactments.

Section 11

Definitions.

Section 12

Short Title Duration.

FIRST SCHEDULE SECOND SCHEDULE THIRD SCHEDULE Number 6.

DISTRICT JUSTICES (TEMPORARY PROVISIONS) ACT, 1923.

AN ACT TO MAKE TEMPORARY PROVISION FOR THE APPOINTMENT OF DISTRICT JUSTICES TO HOLD COURTS OF SUMMARY JURISDICTION AND TO MAKE CONSEQUENTIAL ALTERATIONS IN THE LAW RELATING TO COURTS OF SUMMARY JURISDICTION AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES CONNECTED THEREWITH. [27th March, 1923.] BE IT ENACTED BY THE OIREACHTAS OF SAORSTÁT EIREANN AS FOLLOWS:— Appointment of District Justices.

1.—(1) It shall be lawful for the Governor-General of the Irish Free State on the advice of the Executive Council from time to time to appoint fit and proper persons being Barristers-at-Law in Saorstát Eireann of at least two years' standing or Solicitors of the Supreme Court i Saorstát Eireann to be Magistrates with the title of “District Justices” and to perform the duties and have the powers prescribed by this Act.

(2)Every person appointed to be a District Justice may be dismissed or removed at the pleasure of the Governor-General of the Irish Free State on the advice of the Executive Council.

(3)Every person so appointed to be a District Justice shall while he holds that office be paid out of moneys provided by the Oireachtas a salary and allowances in accordance with a scale to be prescribed by the Minister with the concurrence of the Minister for Finance.

(4)No person shall while holding the office of District Justice be capable of holding any other office or position of emolument or of being elected to or of being a member of either House of the Oireachtas.

(5)Every person so appointed to be a District Justice shall before entering on his office subscribe and make a solemn declaration in the form contained in the First Schedule to this Act.

Duties of District Justices.

2.—(1) It shall be the duty of each District Justice appointed under this Act to hold District Courts at such places within the District allotted to him and at such times as shall be prescribed by the Minister.

(2)A District Justice sitting in and holding a District Court pursuant to this Act shall have all the powers, jurisdiction and authority which were immediately before the 6th day of December, 1922, vested by statute or otherwise in a Justice of the Peace sitting in Petty Sessions.

(3)Every order, decree or judgment made or pronounced by a District Justice sitting in and holding a District Court pursuant to this Act shall be subject to the same appeal (if any) as a similar order, decree or judgment made or pronounced by a Justice of the Peace sitting in Petty Sessions would have been subject to previous to the 6th day of December, 1922.

(4)A District Justice shall within his District when not sitting at Petty Sessions have all the powers, authorities and duties which were immediately before the passing of this Act vested in or imposed on a Justice of the Peace.

(5)Any act, matter or thing which immediately before the passing of this Act was by any statute, rule or order required or authorized to be done before or in the presence of or to be served on a Justice of the Peace shall from and after the passing of this Act (without prejudice to any power or jurisdiction conferred by this Act on a Peace Commissioner) be required or authorized (as the case may be) to be done before or in the presence of or to be served on a District Justice.

Re-arrangement of Petty Sessions Districts.

3.—(1) Immediately upon the passing of this Act or as soon as conveniently may be thereafter the Minister shall divide Saorstát Eireann (except the County of the City of Dublin and so much of the County of Dublin as is within the jurisdiction of the Divisional Magistrates of the City of Dublin) into convenient Court Districts and shall appoint one convenient place in each such District or within one mile from the boundary of such District at which the District Court shall be held for such District.

(2)It shall be lawful for the Minister from time to time as he shall consider expedient to vary all or any of the Court Districts created under this section and to alter all or any of the places appointed under this section for the holding of District Courts.

(3)Immediately upon the completion of the division into Court Districts under this section such Court Districts shall for all purposes take the place of and be substituted for the Petty Sessions Districts into which Saorstát Eireann was divided at the passing of this Act and the District Court in and for each such District shall be held at the place appointed by the Minister under this section and Petty Sessions shall cease to be holden in Saorstát Eireann.

(4)The Minister shall allot to each District Justice as his District such and so many Court Districts constituted under this section (whether situate in the same or different counties) as the Minister shall think expedient and may from time to time as he shall think expedient vary the allotment of Court Districts to all or any of the District Justices and transfer any District Justice from the District so allotted to him to any other District.

Appointment of Peace Commissioners.

4.—(1) The Minister may from time to time by warrant under his hand appoint and remove such and so many fit and proper persons as he shall think expedient in each County to be called “Peace Commissioners” and to perform and exercise within such County the duties and powers prescribed by this Act.

(2)A Peace Commissioner shall have all the powers and authorities which immediately before the passing of this Act were vested in a Justice of the Peace in respect of the several matters following, that is to say:— (a) signing Summonses; (b) signing Warrants; (c) Administering oaths and taking declarations, affirmations and informations; (d) committing dangerous lunatics and idiots to Lunatic Asylums under Section 10 of the Lunacy (Ireland Act, 1867 (30 & 31 Vict., ch. 118); (e) signing certificates for the admission of lunatics and idiots to Lunatic Asylums; (f) signing the certificate required by Section 2 of the Statute entitled the Registration of Clubs (Ireland) Act, 1904:

Provided always that any summons against any member of the Civic Guard shall be signed by a District Justice.

(3)Whenever any person charged with having committed an indictable offence shall be arrested by a member of the Civic Guard such person shall unless a District Justice is immediately available forthwith be brought before a Peace Commissioner who after hearing such evidence as may be offered shall remand such person either in custody or in such bail as the Peace Commissioner shall think fit and remit the case for hearing before a District Justice on a date not later than the next District Court to be held in the Court District where such person was arrested.

(4)Whenever any person charged with having committed an indictable offence is brought before a District Justice it shall be lawful for such District Justice to remand such person to a date not later than the next District Court to be held by him in the Court District where such person was arrested.

Appointment of Clerks of District Courts.

5.—(1) From and after the passing of this Act the existing offices of Clerk of Petty Sessions shall cease to exist and every existing Clerk of Petty Sessions shall cease to hold his office.

(2)From and after the passing of this Act the Minister shall and may from time to time as occasion requires appoint fit and proper persons to be District Court Clerks in the several Court Districts constituted under this Act and may appoint each such person to be District Court Clerk in one or in any greater number of such Court Districts.

(3)Each District Court Clerk appointed under this section shall hold his office by such tenure as the Minister shall prescribe and shall be paid a salary in accordance with a scale to be prescribed by the Minister with the concurrence of the Minister for Finance.

(4)The salaries of the District Court Clerks appointed under this section shall be paid out of the same funds as those out of which the salaries of the existing Clerks of Petty Sessions have been heretofore paid and any deficiency in such funds to meet the amounts of such salaries shall to such extent as the Minister for Finance may sanction be made good out of moneys provided by the Oireachtas: Provided that nothing in this sub-section shall prejudice the power of deduction conferred by Section 2 of the Petty Sessions Clerks (Ireland) Act, 1881.

(5)Each District Court Clerk appointed under this Act shall perform in respect of his District or Districts the like duties as have heretofore been performed by the existing Clerks of Petty Sessions in respect of the existing Petty Sessions Districts and shall also perform such other duties as shall from time to time be allotted to him by the District Justice.

(6)Each District Court Clerk appointed under this Act shall have in each County in which any part of his district or districts is situate, the same power and authority to sign District Court Summonses as is by this Act conferred on a Peace Commissioner in that County.

(7)The existing office of Registrar of Petty Sessions Clerks shall from and after the passing of this Act be called “The Registrar of District Court Clerks” and such Registrar shall perform in relation to the District Court Clerks appointed under this section the like duties as he has heretofore performed in relation to the existing Clerks of Petty Sessions.

(8)In this section the word “existing” means existing on the 6th day of December, 1922.

Power to extend time in certain cases.

6.—(1) Any District Justice, if and whenever he thinks it just and reasonable so to do, may, subject to the limitations imposed by this section, extend the time limited by any statute, rule or regulation for the institution of any proceedings at Petty Sessions or in a District Court, or for giving any notice, serving any document, or doing any act, matter or thing, in relation or as a condition precedent to any such proceedings.

(2)The power of extension of time conferred by this section may be exercised, whether such time has or has not expired at the date of the exercise of such power, but such power shall only be exercised in respect of a time which has expired or will expire after the 31st day of December, 1920, and before the 1st day of July, 1923.

(3)No time shall be extended under this section to any date after the 31st day of December, 1923.

Civic Guard to act in place of Royal Irish Constabulary.

7.—Every act, matter and thing which was on the 6th day of December, 1922, required or authorized by law to be done by or in the presence of or to be served on an Inspector, Sergeant, Constable or other member of the Royal Irish Constabulary at or in connection with or in relation to any Petty Sessions shall from and after the passing of this Act be required or authorized to be done by or in the presence of or to be served on an Inspector, Sergeant, Constable or other member (as the case may require) of the Civic Guard at or in connection with or in relation to a District Court.

Increase of Petty Sessions Fees.

8.—All fees which are at the passing of this Act payable by law at or in connection with Petty Sessions or are payable to or collectable by the Clerk of Petty Sessions or are denoted or paid by Petty Sessions Stamps (including the Dog Tax) shall continue to be payable at the like times and in the like manner as heretofore but with the modifications that all such fees except the Dog Tax shall from and after the passing of this Act be charged and paid at double the rate at which same were heretofore charged and paid and that the District Court, the District Court Clerk and District Court Stamps shall be substituted respectively for Petty Sessions, the Clerk of Petty Sessions and Petty Sessions Stamps.

Confirmation of appointments and acts of existing District Justices.

9.—(1) Each of the persons named in the Third Schedule to this Act having been appointed under the Constabulary (Ireland) Act, 1836 (6 & 7 Will. IV., ch. 13), by the Governor-General of the Irish Free State to be a Magistrate under that Act shall be deemed to have been appointed and to be a District Justice under this Act.

(2)Every act, matter and thing done after the 28th day of October, 1922, by any of the said persons named in the Third Schedule to this Act in exercise or purported exercise of any authority purported to have been at the time of his doing such act, matter or thing vested in him by reason of his having been appointed or purported to have been appointed by the late Provisional Government of Ireland or any Minister thereof to be a District Justice shall notwithstanding any failure (whether by way of commission or omission) to comply with any statute, rule or order or any other irregularity be as valid and effective as if the same had been regularly done by a Magistrate duly appointed under the Constabulary (Ireland) Act, 1836 (6 & 7 Will. IV., ch. 13), or (in the case of acts, matters and things which are by law required to be done by two Magistrates sitting together) by two such Magistrates.

(3)No action shall lie against and no penalty shall be incurred by any of the said persons named in the Third Schedule to this Act for or on account or in respect of any act, matter or thing done by any such person after the 28th day of October, 1922, in exercise or purported exercise of any such authority as is mentioned in the preceding sub-section or any failure (whether by way of commission or omission) to comply with the terms of any statute, rule or order or any other irregularity in the doing of such act, matter or thing.

Adaptation of enactments.

10.—(1) Every mention or reference contained in any British Statute or in any order, rule or regulation made under any British Statute of or to any of the officials, courts, districts or things mentioned in the First Column of the Second Schedule to this Act shall in respect of the doing or not doing of any act, matter or thing in Saorstát Eireann after the passing of this Act be construed and take effect as a reference to the official, court, district or thing named in the Second Column of the said Second Schedule opposite the name of the official, court, district or thing in the First Column.

(2)In this section the expression “British Statute” means Act of the Parliament of the late United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland which was on the 6th day of December, 1922, in force in the area now comprised in Saorstát Eireann.

Definitions.

11.—In this Act the following expressions shall where the context so admits have the meanings respectively assigned to them by this section, that is to say:—“The Minister” means the Minister for Home Affairs; “Justice of the Peace” means and includes all the following persons, namely:— (a) one Justice of the Peace sitting or acting alone; (b) two or more Justices of the Peace sitting or acting together; (c) one Magistrate appointed under the Constabulary (Ireland) Act, 1836 (6 & 7 Will. IV., ch. 13); (d) two such Magistrates sitting or acting together: “Civic Guard” means the Police Force in Saorstát Eireann which is at the passing of this Act commonly called or known as the Civic Guard.

Short Title Duration.

12.—(1) This Act may be cited as The District Justices (Temporary Provisions) Act, 1923.

(2)This Act shall continue in force for one calendar year after the passing thereof, and shall then expire.

FIRST SCHEDULE. “I ___________________________ do swear that I will well and truly serve the Irish Free State (Saorstát Eireann) in the office of District Justice without favour or affection, malice or ill-will; that I will see and cause the peace to be kept and preserved; that I will prevent to the best of my power all offences against the same; that while I shall continue to hold the said office I will to the best of my skill and knowledge discharge all the duties thereof in the execution of Warrants and otherwise faithfully according to law, and that I do not now belong to, and that while I shall hold the said office I will not join or belong to any political society whatsoever or any secret society whatsoever.

So help me God.”

SECOND SCHEDULE.

Name in British Statute.

Name in Saorstát Eireann.

Petty Sessions District Court.

Petty Sessions District Court District.

Clerk of Petty Sessions District Court Clerk Registrar of Petty Sessions Clerks Registrar of District Court Clerks.

Petty Sessions Summons District Court Summons.

Petty Sessions Stamps District Court Stamps.

Justice } sitting in Petty Sessions.

District Justice sitting in and holding a District Court.

Justices Magistrate Magistrates THIRD SCHEDULE.

Mr. L. J. Walsh, Solicitor. ” P. F. Lavery, Solicitor. ” J. F. Crotty, Solicitor. ” W. G. Price, Barrister-at-Law. ” R. D. F. Johnston, Solicitor. ” P. P. O'Donoghue, Barrister-at-Law. ” D. F. Gleeson, Solicitor. ” G. P. Cussen, Solicitor. ” J. V. Fahy, Solicitor. ” J. M. Flood, Barrister-at-Law. ” M. J. Hannan, Barrister-at-Law. ” W. D. Coyne, Solicitor. ” K. S. Reddin, Solicitor. ” J. J. Molloy, Solicitor. ” B. J. Goff, Solicitor. ” C. A. Flattery, Solicitor. ” J. M. Forde, Solicitor. ” E. J. Little, Barrister-at-Law. ” T. A. Finlay, Barrister-at-Law. ” C. J. Beatty, Barrister-at-Law. ” J. H. Gallagher, Barrister-at-Law. ” J. S. Troy, Solicitor. ” W. Meagher, Solicitor. ” D. B. Sullivan, Barrister-at-Law. ” G. Farrell, Barrister-at-Law. ” J. O'Hanrahan, Solicitor. ” P. O'Sullivan, Barrister-at-Law.

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