Dara Murphy (Cork North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We are discussing amendments Nos. 30a, 49e, 63, 64, 80b, 81, 81a and 82.

Amendment No. 30a, tabled by Deputy Catherine Murphy, proposes that notwithstanding any other provisions of the Bill the legal services regulatory authority shall not distinguish between practising Law Library and non-Law Library barristers and barristers who are a member of a professional body other than the Bar Council. The Bill, through the new legal services regulatory authority, gives legal recognition for the first time in legislation to barristers who wish to provide legal services, including as non-Law Library barristers, under the new legal business models. The distinction as it exists is intended to be a positive one, reflecting as it does our desire to support new ways of meeting the needs of consumers in a modern free market economy.

Under the legal services regulation Bill we are introducing new options under which lawyers may choose to practise alongside the traditional Bar Council-Law library model, which has its own long-established structures under its own rights of association. Now the Bill is going to allow barristers, for the first time and under statute, the opportunity to provide their services in alternative ways to that of the independent referral Bar. If the legal services regulatory authority were not to be empowered to recognise the new categories of barrister who may practise alongside the traditional Law Library model then the Bill would be self-defeating. Therefore, I respectfully ask the Deputy to reconsider amendment No. 30a in this light. While I am not in favour of accepting this amendment I can appreciate the sentiment that appears to be behind it in that we do not want a two-tiered barrister profession.

The Deputy's other amendment in this group, amendment No. 49e, seeks to ensure that non-Law Library barristers be consulted in the making of regulations relating to professional indemnity insurance by the new regulatory authority. The Minister, Deputy Frances Fitzgerald, does see merit in this amendment as the Law Society and Bar Council are already cited in the relevant subsection (11) of section 37 of the Bill. I have therefore noted Deputy Murphy's raising of this omission and, on the basis that we will be returning to the provisions of professional indemnity insurance when we come to the Seanad by way of harmonising the Bill in this regard, I respectfully ask that she withdraw the amendment for the time being.

We cannot accept amendment No. 63 in the name of Deputy Niall Collins, which was previously raised on Committee Stage. The amendment leans towards a situation where the professional bodies self-regulate the conduct of their members and it runs counter to the current Government policy preference for more independent regulation of the legal profession. The acceptance of this amendment would, in fact, diminish or reverse the priority of the proposed new legal services regulatory authority over those bodies for which it is intended to be the independent statutory regulator. I therefore request that amendment No. 63 be withdrawn. While the legal professional bodies may continue to make rules in their own right this will be subject to the objectives, principles and provisions of the regulatory regime found in the legal services regulation Bill.

Amendment No. 64 was tabled by Deputy Michael McNamara. I thank him for his amendment but it goes in a similar direction to the one the Government is seeking to follow in ensuring that a variety of legal business models can be allowed to happen notwithstanding the traditional model for the conduct of business as a barrister which has been in place.

Amendment No. 80b, tabled by Deputy Catherine Murphy, seeks to remove details of whether or not somebody is a member of the Law Library from the roll of practising barristers which will be maintained by the new legal services regulatory authority under section 100 of the Bill. I wish to go some way towards Deputy Murphy's concern while at the same time meeting the Government's policy objective of creating a modernised legal services sector. I would have preferred a wording which merely specified which legal professional body, if any, a barrister may choose to be a member of.

Therefore, it is intended to revisit these matters in preparation for the Seanad. Given the fact that it will be addressed in Seanad Éireann, I would be grateful if the Deputy would afford the Minister for Justice and Equality the opportunity of doing so at that time and withdraw the amendment this morning.

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