Dr. Don Thornhill:

I thank the joint committee for inviting us to attend. As the Chairman said, it is our first appearance before it. In fact, it is perhaps our first physical public outing. The Legal Services Regulatory Authority is a new organisation. As such, we thank the committee very much for giving us this opportunity. I introduce my colleagues, Dr. Brian Doherty, chief executive officer, and Mr. Ultan Ryan, secretary. As we provided the committee with an advance copy of our statement, I will not need to go through it word for word.

As the members know, the narrative behind the authority is that the Act was signed into law at the end of December 2015. The authority was legally established on 1 October 2016 and the members of the authority were appointed by the Government following the statutory nomination process. That is quite an unusual approach in the sense that there are nominating organisations which provide two names to the Minister who, in turn, seeks approval of the nominations from Government. The nominations then go before the Dáil and Seanad for separate resolutions before the members are appointed by the Minister.

The authority commenced with no staff, no accommodation and no money. We thank the Department of Justice and Equality for helping us at the start-up stage to identify and secure the very experienced Ms Renee Dempsey, who took on the role of interim chief executive for the authority as well as our experienced secretary, Mr. Ultan Ryan, who has stayed with us. Ms Dempsey and Mr. Ryan did a terrific job in the early period with no staff. They helped to secure our funding through the accounting labyrinths by the end of 2016. The authority faced an initial challenge in that we were required under the law to present within six months of the authority's establishment day two reports to the Minister for subsequent laying before the Houses of the Oireachtas. We were required to engage in public consultations and to prepare reports on legal partnerships and multi-disciplinary partnerships. Both of those requirements were met. Our reports have been presented to the Houses of the Oireachtas and are available on our website. Dr. Doherty came on board as permanent full time chief executive in September 2017 and he has shown remarkable and effective leadership.

There are six lay members of the authority who are nominated by the Citizens Information Board, the Higher Education Authority, the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, the Institute of Legal Costs Accountants and the Consumers' Association of Ireland, respectively. Of the non-lay members, one is nominated by the Bar Council of Ireland, one is a solicitor nominated by the Legal Aid Board, one member is nominated by the Honorable Society of King's Inns and two are nominated by the Law Society. The authority has a lay majority and a lay chair and each member is statutorily required to act on a part-time basis. The authority is required by law to be independent in the performance of its functions and to act in the public interest. We all understand that we are nominees and not representatives of the nominating organisations.

The authority is tasked with regulating the provision of legal services by legal practitioners and ensuring the maintenance and improvement of standards in the provision of those services in the State. We have six overarching objectives which are set out in law, including to protect and promote the public interest; to support the proper and effective administration of justice; to protect and promote the interests of consumers relating to the provision of legal services; to promote competition in the provision of legal services in the State; to encourage an independent, strong and effective legal profession and to promote and maintain adherence to the professional principles of legal practitioners as specified in the Act.

Within that overarching mandate there are a number of specific functions, which are listed in my opening statement, and I can go through them if the members wish me to do so.