Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Dr. Thornhill for attending. I have another meeting at 10 a.m. and must leave to attend it but I hope to be back. I will ask a few questions before that time and I will certainly be back if I can make it.

We have to consider this discussion in the context of the fierce resistance put up by the legal profession to the introduction of this legislation and the fact that the previous Minister, Alan Shatter, basically allowed the legal profession to rewrite the original legislation against the backdrop that reducing legal costs in Ireland was the only troika demand that has not been implemented. According to the National Competitiveness Council, legal service prices were 8.3% higher in the first quarter of 2016 compared with the first quarter of 2012. That is the backdrop, namely, a battle to avoid regulating the profession. The authority has been established for a number of years but progress has been incredibly slow. I am not blaming the witnesses or personalising the issue but I would like to tease out why that has taken so long. The authority carried out the statutory public consultations and completed the reports that have been laid before the House but it has not yet found a permanent office. It took a year to get a chief executive for the authority and it has only just published its strategic plan. The process is moving incredibly slowly. How many of the functions under the legislation are currently operational and how many are not? Given that matters are moving very slowly, can Dr. Thornhill account for the delays? Are organisations such as the Law Society standing in the authority's way, is there a cultural reluctance to move matters froward or is there some other way in which Dr. Thornhill can account for the slow progress?

The authority's public complaints function is a major issue for the public. Is it anticipated it will come into effect in the first half of 2019, which will be three years after the Act commenced? Why will it have taken three years before the public can bring their complaints to the Legal Services Regulatory Authority?

Does Dr. Thornhill have any qualms about the fact that while this was an area of reform, we are two years on from the regulatory authority being established and that has not been forthcoming yet?