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

I will make a couple of points in response to the various issues that have emerged today. I would say firstly that there is a public interest in having an independent regulator. This Bill provides for better control of costs. It provides for public complaints to be dealt with in an independent fashion. It provides a roadmap for the opening up of our legal services market. All of that is delivered in this Bill. It is very much about the public interest. Obviously, I have been very concerned to ensure the public interest is served by enabling these legislative proposals to become law.

Multidisciplinary partnerships are in their infancy in other countries. There has been very little coverage of their impact to date. They seem to be operating happily alongside traditional models, but they have raised regulatory issues. Risk will need to be properly managed by the regulatory system. I am not stopping multidisciplinary partnerships. I expect to see them happening in Ireland. However, I believe we should do proper research project first.

I agree with the points that have been made about mediation and costs. I would like to make an important point about this Bill in that context. I think Deputies Mac Lochlainn and Collins will be particularly interested in this. The Bill provides for informal resolution and mediation on several fronts: in resolving complaints, in settling legal cost disputes, in settling consumer issues such as inadequate service and in settling misconduct issues. It is important that the model provided for in the Bill mirrors and anticipates the mediation Bill and creates a culture of informal resolution. I would say that the mediation Bill is very important. We have not been able to get to it due to the heavy legislative workload of the Department of Justice and Equality. It is almost ready for publication.

It is very important that we move ahead in establishing this Bill because it provides for significant independent regulation of legal services and includes a full suite of modern regulatory inspection powers that will stand up to constitutional scrutiny. We are giving the new regulatory authority full powers to oversee all the new business models, which is very important. The Bill has been restructured to give effect to the agreement that the former Minister, Deputy Shatter, made with the Law Society in 2012 concerning the retention by the society of its supervisory powers in relation to solicitors' accounts and compensation funds. The Bill designs and brings forward measures to introduce limited liability partnerships for legal firms. As I said this morning, I have proposed an array of amendments to the Bill. A huge amount is being done.

I assure the House that I was not threatened by anyone. As the Minister with responsibility for this legislation, I had three options open to me. First, I had the option of leaving things exactly as they were in the area of legal services. Deputies can see from the major changes introduced in the Bill that I am not taking that route. Second, I had the option of disregarding the legal advice that certain elements of the Bill posed constitutional risks. Some people would have liked me to disregard that advice so that I would be tied up in lengthy and costly litigation and none of these reforms would be implemented in the near future. Third, I had the option of getting this Bill enacted, thereby creating a direct path to the opening of the market to new legal partnerships as early as next year, laying the groundwork for further reforms and creating an authority with the teeth to ensure the reforms get going and get embedded. That is what I have chosen to do.

The troika came and went, but we continued to work on structural reform to open up the way legal services are provided in this State. We did so in a way that offers choice to legal practitioners and those who avail of their services. It also addresses the cost of doing legal business or enforcing contracts, which was set to become a deepening competitive issue of disadvantage for our economy. There is more work to be done, but a more transparent legal cost structure, involving a legal costs adjudicator, is now embedded in the Bill. Solicitors and barristers will have to lay out what their costs are, while other changes relate to advertising. The various processes in the Bill will ensure we are on the right path in terms of supporting consumers. I have accepted several of the suggestions that came from the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission by proposing changes to Schedule 1 to the Bill. I have been able to incorporate those very good suggestions in the legislation. In addition, the commission will be given an opportunity in 18 months to review how the Bill is working. The new regulatory authority will take careful note of any attempt by any professional body to subvert what is intended in this Bill.

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