Dr. Don Thornhill:

I thank Deputy Clare Daly. First of all, as a former chair of the National Competitiveness Council, I was involved in reports which commented, I think over a period of ten years, on the high cost of legal services in Ireland. I am very much aware of the background.

On why it has taken so long, it has been a matter of frustration for us that it has taken so long. The regulatory authority was established on 1 October 2016. That was purely a legal act. There was nothing there other than an almost complete membership of the regulatory authority - it was not quite complete. We were not able to meet as a full regulatory authority until 26 October. Then we had to find accommodation and begin the process of trying to develop an administrative and management resource because, as the Act says - deliberating and wisely - members of the regulatory authority can only act in a part-time capacity. I am a former civil servant - I left a number of years ago. One of the things that struck me is how much more rigorous, demanding and time consuming the public administration requirements are today than they were 20 years ago. Painstaking processes now have to be undergone in respect of procurement and appointments. All of those take time.

We moved as quickly as we could. We had an interim chief executive - a very experienced individual - in place quickly. We immediately began the contractual process of appointing a recruitment consultant from a process supervised by the Office of Government Procurement. That was not there in my time as a civil servant. The process ended in Dr. Doherty's appointment as chief executive. Ideally, we should not have begun without staff. We should not have had the statutory deadlines we had to meet for carrying out consultations but those are facts and requirements of the Act. We were obliged to allocate such resources as we had in that area before we could get into the business of building up the structure of the organisation.

In respect of the disciplinary procedures, I take on board what Deputy Clare Daly stated. It is taking some time. One of the factors we want to be absolutely assured about when we open those important functions - because not only do they open up the possibility of redress for clients of legal services but they also have very serious implications for legal practitioners as well - is that we are resourced adequately in respect of personnel and facilities to handle that work and that the basis on which we are doing it is absolutely legally sound. All of that requires very careful attention to detail and planning when it is being done quickly.