Andrew Doyle (Wicklow, Fine Gael)

Boiled, stewed and drank, rather than grasped.

A proper functioning democracy needs a legal profession. We inherited one and it is probably 200 years since its structure was looked at. The problems associated with the image of the legal profession are not unique to Ireland. Wherever one goes, one finds certain perceptions about barristers, lawyers and other members of the legal profession, some fanciful and some well founded. Attempts to reform the profession, as the Minister is endeavouring to do, are bound to ruffle feathers, which may not be a bad thing. However, I have spoken to colleagues and friends in the profession who broadly welcome the Bill, as no one could argue with the need to reform it.

An independent regulatory authority needs to be established and the profession should be competitive. Not everyone agrees, however, that there should be a schedule of costs. There should be and it should be transparent. If it is our intention to sell the country as a place in which it is good and easy to do business, we must realise that how the legal system works and how legal costs are structured are important aspects of doing business. People who come to invest in Ireland, as well as our own people, deserve a legal structure that does not complicate matters for them.

While it is accepted that it will not give the Minister power to interfere directly with the legal profession or the Judiciary, the structure for appointing people to the regulatory authority has caused concern among members of the profession. The regulatory body for it will differ from that for the medical profession. The structure by which the Medical Council was established keeps a complete separation between the authority to approve nominations and the Minister. At no time could a Minister with a particular bias influence the composition of the medical regulatory authority.

There are a couple of other areas that I would mention. On costs and tendering, one of the matters that have disbarred many talented young barristers from embarking on a career as lawyers has been that they have had to spend a great deal of money in the first instance to train and then spend a long number of years working virtually for nothing, devilling on behalf of others and gaining experience, at a time when in most other professions people are earning and on a pathway to an improved income. That has proved to be a serious impediment to those who have tried to embark on that type of career.

As regards the tribunal, it, no more than the regulatory authority, must be seen to be totally independent so that when a complaints procedure process is initiated, neither the State nor the legal profession can have any influence on it at all and the legal profession has its own channels of representation to defend, or otherwise, its position. On having a structure in place, much of it, in fairness, centres around costs. Sometimes it centres around double representation and a conflict of interest. If the Bill does all it can to separate those potential problems, then it will do good work.

The second obligation of this Bill is, as some others have stated, to comply with the EU-IMF working programme on reducing costs. As others have also stated, this will not affect the balance of payments significantly but it does have an impact on potential start-up businesses and potential investors if they see that the legal costs system is not prohibitive and that it is easy to navigate.

I would broadly welcome the Bill. As I stated at the outset, any Bill that contains so many fundamental reforms is bound to upset people for a while, but it is a matter of people coming to terms with it. The intention and spirit of the Bill is to reform the matter and make it more fit for purpose for the 21st century. I heard somebody else - it might have been the Acting Chairman, Deputy Tom Hayes - suggest publishing a list of amendments in advance of Committee Stage, and I think that is a really good idea. It would give Members time to consider them in order that when we get to Committee Stage, Bills are not merely rushed through. I commend the Bill to the House.

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