Neale Richmond (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Craughwell. I note the presence of Senator Victor Boyhan, who is substituting on behalf of Senator Michael McDowell, who has given his apologies.

A number of questions I hoped to ask were asked by Senator Craughwell. I have one or two specific follow-up questions and they might tie in with some of the questions asked. Senator Craughwell mentioned a marketing suite for the Council of the Bar in Ireland. It goes beyond the Bar Council. It goes to the entire sector, to the financial services sector and to the Law Society. Who is selling Ireland in this area? Is this a responsibility for a State agency?

There might be a role for the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Mitchell O'Connor, or the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Fitzgerald, to sell this as a package, much like the bids we are putting in for the European Medicines Agency and the European Banking Authority.

Enterprise Ireland was here earlier and it is out there with IDA Ireland, day and night, selling Ireland as a place to invest and trade. The Ministers of State, Deputies Breen and Dara Murphy, are traversing the globe, rightly, and it is really promising. However, is that being done for the opportunities the witnesses have just mentioned and if not, why not? What is the solution? This is something we can say to the Government now. We do not even have to wait to write our report at the end of June. We can feed it in almost instantaneously. How can we get a part of that €4 billion export value? We have said in respect of a number of areas that if we can get 10% of the exile from London, we will be doing great. It would make a great difference to our economy in a year to get 10% of €4 billion.

Tied into that is the need, as Senator Craughwell said, for language proficiency. In a former life, I spent a great deal of time working with people to train them up to apply for posts as lawyer linguists within the European institutions. It was a huge issue. Notwithstanding that these were very promising and lucrative careers, the numbers applying from Ireland were a proportion of the per capitanumbers from other member states where it was seen as something viable. As Senator Craughwell asked, how do we encourage not only those with relevant language knowledge and experience, but more barristers and solicitors? How do we prove to a second year devil at the bar who is looking forward to ten years of a slightly tougher experience that this is worth investing his or her time in? Do we need to provide more supports for recently qualified solicitors and recently called barristers?

Before I move on from this topic, I ask if there has been any evidence of expansion by UK firms or chambers into the Irish legal system. We have all read articles and various media pieces involving rumours about large London-based firms or London-origin firms seeking to set up offices in Dublin or to merge with Irish firms. Is there any tangible evidence of this? Moving away from the firms, are we seeing more barristers from London, Birmingham or Belfast, even, wondering whether to transfer?

Certain parties have chosen not to issue proceedings in England. What happens there? Is it the case that they have decided to sit on this for a year or two? What else needs to happen in the meantime? What happens to those proceedings? It may be down to my ignorance of the legal system but do they just float in the ether? What happens while that delay goes on? We have asked a lot of questions. Perhaps Mr. McGarry might answer some, with his colleagues coming in on others.