Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

If we look at the minutes from the regulatory authority's meeting last year, they reflect that the members were recording concern at the Department and at the role of the Department in providing the regulatory authority with timelines on the implementation of legal partnerships. In those minutes, the members felt the regulatory authority's independence was potentially being undermined by the Department. An external consultant was engaged and I refer to the rest of that as well. It reflected a certain tension between the regulatory authority and the Department. This ties in with my question, which Dr. Thornhill referred to in his opening statement, about the establishment of the framework to introduce legal partnerships. Dr. Thornhill is saying that this will be in place by before the end of the third quarter of this year. These partnerships were fiercely resisted by the Bar Council and the Honourable Society of King's Inns. Is Dr. Thornhill saying that, by the end of September, legal professionals will be in a position to get partnerships up and running at long last? Is that what is clearly being said?