Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

I thank the Deputies opposite for their support for what is very important and technical legislation which will ensure mutual enforcement of judgments with the countries to which the Lugano convention applies. The Bill itself, as I said, is not controversial.

In the context of the matter raised by Deputy Mattie McGrath, it is important that where someone is successful in litigation, they can recover costs against the unsuccessful party. That applies to domestic and international litigation. It is the great benefit, if one is talking in the area of commercial judgments, if an individual based in this country or an Irish company is successful in litigation with a foreign company or individual, that they should be able to cover any legal costs they incurred in circumstances they were proved right in the court action they took, in circumstances in which their rights had been violated or injuries had been done to them, or in circumstances in which there had been a breach of a commercial arrangement.

We have mechanisms, as do other countries, for adjudicating on legal costs. As Deputy Mattie McGrath knows, the Legal Services Bill, of which he was critical, has been brought before the House and contains substantive provisions to provide greater transparency in the area of legal costs and to provide an updated method for legal costs adjudication. It is important to remember when legal costs are ordered, the person who got the benefit of that order was successful in litigation and may have been forced to go to the courts to protect their circumstances because they had been violated by the unsuccessful party to that litigation. They have to have the means in justice to recover their legal costs.

It is also important an interest penalty is in place. Where orders for costs are made, if they are disobeyed by the litigant against whom the order was made, or if they fail to pay the sum agreed by way of legal costs for the successful litigant, or if they defy and ignore a legal costs adjudication by, currently, the Taxing Master, by an appeal in the courts or, in future, by the legal costs adjudicator, there must be some pressure they can be put under to ensure they fulfil their legal obligations, do not defy the courts and that innocent litigants who have been forced to resort to the courts to protect their position can recover the costs they have already paid for the litigation for which they have been forced to engage. The interest penalty that is imposed is designed to provide an incentive to those against whom orders for costs have been made to meet their obligations and where they fail to do so on time to compensate the successful litigant by way of an interest payment where appropriate for any failure to comply with court orders.

I thank Deputies for giving me some additional time to put the background to the Bill on the record of the House. I agree with Deputies opposite. I thank my officials for the work done on what is complex legislation, the detailed manner in which they assisted its explanation in my Second Stage speech and in the explanatory memorandum, the latter which is helpful in working through the mysteries of what this is all about.

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