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

The publication of a regulatory impact analysis is part of the preparatory process for a Bill being put before the Houses. A 52-page regulatory impact analysis of the Legal Services Regulation Bill was published in November 2013. This document, which ranks among the more substantial regulatory impact analyses prepared on the Bill, sets out the costs, benefits and impacts of three policy options. The third of these options was the establishment of a lean and independent legal services regulator. That was preferred and agreed by the Government.

The development of the Legal Services Regulation Bill has held to this preferred option. The Bill has been developed with relevant Cabinet approvals on that basis and in detailed consultation with relevant stakeholders, where necessary or appropriate. Under the legislative process, the Bill has been further developed and amendments duly made in detailed debate before both Houses and in the Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality, of which the Deputy is a member. The Bill provides for a series of review mechanisms under which remaining key issues will be subjected to public consultations. These consultations will shape and determine how those issues may be dealt with or regulated in the future, including, if necessary, under primary legislation. Multidisciplinary practices are a case in point. The new authority will also have the power to carry out such consultations on relevant matters on its own initiative.

Under an amendment introduced by the Government in the Seanad, the operation of the Legal Services Regulation Bill will be subject to periodic review. The first such review will be held 18 months after the establishment of the new regulatory authority. It will include a review of the levy on legal practitioners and the participation of the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission. These public consultation and periodic review mechanisms built into the Bill, as amended, enable the Bill's objectives, functions and impacts to be analysed on an ongoing basis. They will review and consider the real issues arising in real time under the Bill from when it is enacted. In fact, these new reviews and consultations are among some of the distinguishing features of the Bill.

That covers amendment No. 22. If the Deputy wishes to discuss the other amendments in the group, I will be happy to do so.

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