Seán Haughey (Dublin North Central, Fianna Fail)

I am glad to report on behalf of the Minister for Justice and Law Reform that the Government has been progressing measures for reform in the legal sector for some time. A working group to look at ways of reducing legal costs reported in November 2005 and its recommendations were endorsed by the Government. At that point it was recognised that preliminary work would be needed to implement the recommendations across the operational, policy and legislative areas. Consequently, in January 2006 an implementation advisory group was established with seven members from the legal, business, academic and public sectors. The implementation advisory group reported in November 2006, building on the earlier working group recommendations. The Competition Authority also made recommendations with regard to solicitors and barristers as part of its review of competition in professional services and these were published in December 2006.

Building on the working and advisory group reports, the Minister's Department has been developing proposals for a legal costs Bill. The Bill will replace, in modern language, the Office of the Taxing Master and establish new principles for the assessment of all costs. The Bill will also provide for greater transparency with regard to how legal costs are estimated or agreed with clients and invoiced. The scope of the Bill will extend to both solicitors and barristers. At the same time, the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation has been working with the Competition Authority and the relevant professional bodies on the wider competitiveness issues they have raised. The earlier development of competitiveness measures for the legal sector had been taking place in line with commitments in the Government legislative programme. Latterly this work has been deepened by its inclusion in the National Recovery Plan 2011-2014 and the EU-IMF Programme of Financial Support for Ireland. Under the EU-IMF programme, structural reforms are to include the establishment of an independent regulator for the legal profession, with implementation of the recommendations of the legal costs working group and of outstanding Competition Authority recommendations to reduce legal costs. These structural reforms are for review by the end of the third quarter of 2011.

Government policy on the need for changes regarding the legal professions has been reflected in the Legal Services Ombudsman Act 2009 which provides for the establishment of a legal services ombudsman and in the Civil Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2008 which provides for a number of other matters relating to regulation of the solicitors' profession. Recruitment of the ombudsman by the Public Appointments Service commenced in November, and an appointment will be made in the near future. Other cost reduction measures have included the active promotion of alternative dispute resolution as an alternative to expensive litigation in areas such as commercial and family law.

The Competition Authority made a series of recommendation addressed directly to the legal professional bodies. In its annual report for 2009 the authority notes that while the Bar Council has implemented many of the recommendations addressed to it, the recommendations to allow direct access to barristers for legal advice and to allow barristers to operate in groups have not yet been implemented. However, I understand that the Bar Council has authorised a number of approved organisations and their members to have direct professional access to barristers in non-contentious issues. The scheme does not extend to court appearances, but is limited to advisory work. The number of approved bodies has risen to almost 50 and most barristers make themselves available for direct provisional access work. The Competition Authority also makes clear in its annual report that the Law Society has either completed or progressed all of the recommendations addressed to it.

With regard to the Competition Authority recommendations addressed to the Minister for Justice and Law Reform, a key proposal was that legislation should be brought forward to establish a legal services commission, an independent statutory body with overall responsibility for regulating the legal profession and the market for legal services. The commission would delegate, subject to its oversight, day-to-day regulation to the existing professional bodies. The commission would also undertake research and analysis of the market for legal services to identify areas of reform for the benefit of consumers or the functioning of the market and would set guidelines for the assessment of costs in contentious matters. An independent body such as the legal services commission would, on the basis of the authority's recommendations, be given the function to set standards for the provision of solicitor and barrister training and to approve institutions providing such training.

I can inform the House that the details of the proposals for the legal costs Bill are well advanced in the Department of Justice and Law Reform and that the question of better regulation generally of the legal professions is being considered in the context of that Bill, as well as any implications the changes might have for the Office of the Legal Services Ombudsman. The details will be published in due course following their approval by the Government.