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

This group of amendments deals with the transition from the old regulatory system to the new regulatory system provided by the Bill. A decision made by my predecessor, post publication of the Bill, that the society would retain the financial and accounting oversight of solicitors and the associated solicitors' compensation fund has led to a great many amendments to date. The key policy consideration, with which I agree, has been for the new authority and, by extension, the State, not to be responsible or held liable for the solicitors' compensation fund. This change is that the Law Society, subject to the oversight mechanisms of the new regulatory authority, will retain its existing investigative, protective and disciplinary powers regarding the financial regulation of solicitors. This, in essence, represents a co-regulatory split between the Law Society and the authority in respect of solicitors. There will be no equivalent regulatory split in regard to barristers, who will be exclusively and entirely regulated by the authority.

The Law Society already has extensive powers in the Solicitors Acts 1954 to 2011 relating to the financial and accounting oversight of solicitors and within this regulatory framework the solicitors' compensation fund, a multimillion euro fund financed by solicitors themselves from which compensation is paid to clients who have, in effect, been defrauded by solicitors holding their moneys, operates. It makes sense to keep the infrastructure and potential liability associated with the compensation fund in place but with the Law Society subject to the oversight of the LRSA. The credibility and effectiveness of this system and maintaining a visible threat to solicitors depend on the Law Society being able to pursue disciplinary action, including High Court emergency measures, on its own initiative. These are critical factors both in managing the risk of financial misbehaviour by solicitors and in moving quickly to investigation and enforcement. The Law Society has a wealth of experience in the management of these issues. However, the Law Society's activities will be overseen by, and held accountable to, the new authority through a range of mechanisms, namely, a monitor, a monitoring presence, an officer of the authority on the Law Society 's regulation of practice committee, the power to obtain reports from the Law Society, provisions to allow for the flow of information between the Law Society and the new authority, and the authority's general power to make recommendations to the Minister for legislative change including where the authority might conclude from its monitoring of the Law Society that these arrangements need to be adjusted legislatively.

The authority will be the approving authority for regulations made by the Law Society. It is important to note that the authority will operate a new, independent, public complaints handling system for general professional misconduct by both solicitors and barristers.

As a corollary to the regulatory division of labour between the Law Society and the legal services regulatory authority, several repeals and amendments will be necessary to the Solicitors Acts and these are provided for in this group of amendments.

As I said, we had to wait until the structure of the Bill was absolutely clear before we could deal with all the amendments to the Solicitors Acts. The amendments to those Acts reflect the changes we are introducing in the regulatory system, which must be reflected in the Solicitors Acts.

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