Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

This is recommendation No. 22 under action No. 45. It was flagged as being partially completed but with a further delay likely. The review has been commenced, but it has proven more difficult than anticipated to establish the reliable set of data and therefore the relevant action point was not completed for the first quarter. A data set based on the aggregation of cases submitted for adjudication will become available when the new Office of the Legal Costs Adjudicator, OLCA, is established either later this year or early next year. A steering group will migrate from the current office of the Taxing Master to the OLCA was formed earlier this year, and the underlying data requirements are being designed into the set-up process. There have been discussions on an alternative data set in the interim period. Until the new office is established we hope to have something that will work. It might not be perfect but sometimes good can be better than perfect. The only useable data set on legal costs available to the working group was provided by the insurance industry in response to a specific request that we made. It is recommended that a quarterly reporting system on cost trends be put in place with the insurance industry until the OLCA is operational. We are going to go with a temporary solution until the new office is up and running. It will be something but it will not be what we want. What we want will come when this new office is established.