Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for tabling amendment No. 91, as it gives me an opportunity to set out my intentions for aligning the Bill's provisions in relation to legal services advertising with the EU services directive. Clearly, this is something the Deputy also wishes to achieve. The European Commission has expressed concern that Ireland's current legal services advertising regime may be in breach of Article 24 of Directive 2006/123/EC, which is known as the services directive. In general terms, while the directive permits the imposition of certain restrictions on legal services advertising that are informed by the public interest, the Commission has found that some of the current restrictions being applied in this jurisdiction may be disproportionate. A letter of formal notice to that effect issued in October 2014.

I wish to inform the Deputy that the Department of Justice and Equality is engaged in ongoing correspondence and consultation with the Commission with a view to finding an appropriate balance between the exigencies of the services directive and those of Government policy, including as part of the ongoing reform of the legal services sector. Therefore, it is anticipated that advertising provisions that meet the concerns arising with regard to the services directive will be put forward by way of amendment to this Bill when it comes before the Seanad. As I have said, we are in discussions with the Commission as part of an attempt to work out how the appropriate amendment will be drafted. Section 151 of the Bill will enable the new legal services regulatory authority to make regulations with regard to the advertising of legal services by solicitors and barristers. Detailed work on the revised advertising provisions continues on this basis in my Department. We are doing this in consultation with the Commission and with the assistance of the Office of the Attorney General and the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel.

I believe this matter can be satisfactorily resolved. I recognise the urgency of it. The aim is to ensure the legislative basis of the State's legal services advertising regime is fully aligned with national policy imperatives and the broader EU competition imperative. On the basis that the redrafting of section 151 of the Bill is at a very advanced stage, I ask the Deputy to consider withdrawing her amendment. Although I am not supporting the amendment at this time, I note and welcome the fact that the Deputy has sought in amendment No. 91 to retain the Bill's prohibition, as set out in section 151, of a professional code that seeks to stop a group of practising barristers who share a facility, premises or cost of practice from advertising themselves as such a group. I fully intend to deal with this issue. As I have said during this debate when we discussed a number of issues, I intend to introduce some amendments in the Seanad, which means there will be further discussion of this section when the amended Bill returns to the Dáil.

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