Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

If the National Consumer Agency could take time off from the supermarkets, finding out what the rest of us already know, and conduct a survey of people who are dealing with the legal profession, it would say this is a welcome measure but that it is limited enough. The background against which one has to measure it is the Competition Authority report. That report is very instructive but I do not think anybody has adverted to it. For example, it states that the Competition Authority has concluded that the legal profession is in need of substantial reform and it goes on to spell out why that is the case. The report states that the Competition Authority recommends comprehensive new legislation, a legal services Bill, to address the competition concerns identified in its report. The legislation would establish an independent legal services commission with overall responsibility for regulating the legal profession and the market for legal services. That is a horse of a completely different colour. The Bill before the House provides for a legal services ombudsman but in terms of what was envisaged by the Competition Authority, it is a modest measure.

Part of the reason we are where we are is because of what might be euphemistically referred to as recent events.

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