Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I could have given the same answer to Deputy Niall Collins. There is a broad range of other individuals engaged in matters of some relevance, directly or indirectly, to legal services such as notaries public, legal cost accountants, legal executives and others. I could go on in the context of the manner in which people describe themselves and their engagements. I am not in any way being critical of their engagements. There is an increasing number of legal executives doing a particular type of work but there is an important discussion that needs to take place in a public context. Legal executives are looking for rights of audience in the District Court and Circuit Court. Other issues involve training, legal expertise and the limits to which different individuals should engage in the legal profession without being fully trained as lawyers.

These are public interest issues and it is not about preserving anyone's patch. I am an enthusiast of the provision of legal services through alternative business mechanisms to make the legal profession more competitive and to give lawyers other business options through which to provide legal advice as well as giving the general public an opportunity to access legal advice. In the context of the Bill, we have a substantial agenda. I appreciate the role played by legal executives and others but that is for another day and requires a different discussion than incorporating it at this stage within the Bill or providing for their regulation through the legal services regulatory authority. In the public interest, we must enact this Bill, establish the legal services regulatory authority and have the new measures in place.

At a later date, we can deal with other bodies engaged in aspects of law and for whom there may be a need, in the public interest, for some form of regulation. One of the issues is to ensure that people do not claim to have expertise they do not have. As a consequence, members of the public may not always be well served. Issues must be considered and addressed and they transcend this Bill. The Bill is a comprehensive and complex introduction of substantial public interest reforms. It is not practical or appropriate to extend it at this time.