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

I move amendment No. 42:

In page 28, to delete lines 34 to 36.

The joint Government and Opposition amendments Nos. 42 and 43 relate to the ban on the chief executive officer of the legal services regulatory authority expressing an opinion to an Oireachtas committee on the merits of any policy of the Government as currently found in sections 25 and 26 of the Bill. The amendments propose that this ban be removed in both instances, respectively. As previously signalled on Committee Stage, the Government is persuaded by this view and I am now happy to agree to both amendments, namely, amendments Nos. 42 and 43. The lifting of this ban will be welcomed by those Deputies and stakeholders who raised concerns about these provisions in the past.

In relation to Deputy Mac Lochlainn's additional amendment No. 44, we would consider it a step too far for current regulatory purposes. We would not, therefore, propose to delete section 26(3), as his amendment suggests. The existing provision simply provides that the chief executive will not be forced to give an account before the relevant committee of the Oireachtas on any matters which are, or may be, before the courts or are specific to a determination by the regulatory authority in respect of a particular legal practitioner. We believe these to be reasonable safeguard provisions, which protect the integrity of any relevant court or regulatory proceedings or the new authority from external comment or controversy. We need to avoid an open-ended risk of disrupting due process in other fora through inadvertent or inappropriate public comment. Given the legally prudential and protective nature of section 26(3), I ask that Deputy Mac Lochlainn withdraw his proposal for its deletion under amendment No. 44.

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