Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Just to clarify, I had submitted this amendment and others at earlier Stages of the Bill regarding the allocation of fees to the Bar Council and the Law Society. This amendment emanated from the Bar Council. Its concern was that the levies applied would reflect the number of cases. If many complaints are made against solicitors, the Law Society would deal with that pro rataand then the Bar Council would deal with whatever percentage applied to barristers after a certain point. That is the intent of the amendment. If the Minister is not accepting these amendments, will she bring in a system at a later stage that lays out clearly and fairly what each representative body should pay? If 80% of complaints relate to solicitors and 20% relate to barristers, after a certain point, it should apply pro ratato those two organisations. While some barristers are making a lot of money, many are genuinely struggling, and one would not want the fee to be disproportionate to the number of complaints made against barristers or to cause barristers, particularly young barristers, to struggle. That is the point of those amendments.

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