Results 461-480 of 11,441 for speaker:Ivana Bacik

Seanad: Legal Services Ombudsman Bill 2008: Committee and Remaining Stages (3 Mar 2009)

Ivana Bacik: I was going to hold my fire for later sections but having been brought in by Senator Norris I would like to speak on this section. I must first, however, declare my interest as a member of the trade, being a barrister.

Seanad: Legal Services Ombudsman Bill 2008: Committee and Remaining Stages (3 Mar 2009)

Ivana Bacik: The profession, as the Senator prefers, and a member of the trade union for the profession, that is, the Bar Council.

Seanad: Legal Services Ombudsman Bill 2008: Committee and Remaining Stages (3 Mar 2009)

Ivana Bacik: I thank Senator Norris for that accolade. It is important the legal services ombudsman would assess the adequacy of admissions policies. Senator Norris has reminded me of a campaign in which I was centrally involved in 1988 and 1989 when the Law Society operated a restrictive admissions policy in the form of a quota for the number of people who could pass the entrance exam. The Minister of...

Seanad: Legal Services Ombudsman Bill 2008: Committee and Remaining Stages (3 Mar 2009)

Ivana Bacik: The Bar Council has already raised with the Minister of State the cost of the legal ombudsman service. Section 11 gives the necessary power to the ombudsman to employ persons on particular terms and conditions and to engage the services of professional and other advisers and so forth. That is important. It is necessary to keep the cost of running the service as low as possible. Given the...

Seanad: Legal Services Ombudsman Bill 2008: Committee and Remaining Stages (3 Mar 2009)

Ivana Bacik: In my Second Stage speech, I referred to section 15(1) the Bill, which states that "the Legal Services Ombudsman shall prepare and submit to the Minister a report . . . specifying the number of persons admitted to practise". This section is incomplete in the absence of a provision requiring the ombudsman to review the number of people who have left the profession and to monitor the figures...

Seanad: Legal Services Ombudsman Bill 2008: Committee and Remaining Stages (3 Mar 2009)

Ivana Bacik: I am grateful to the Minister of State for indicating his willingness to consider this important point. He is as aware as I am that there is anecdotal evidence of high levels of attrition. When we did our study, we were concerned to get hard data on that. We found that neither the Bar Council nor the Law Society was able — I am not sure they were not willing — to provide information on...

Seanad: Legal Services Ombudsman Bill 2008: Committee and Remaining Stages (3 Mar 2009)

Ivana Bacik: I thank the Minister of State.

Seanad: Legal Services Ombudsman Bill 2008: Committee and Remaining Stages (3 Mar 2009)

Ivana Bacik: I share Senator O'Donovan's concern about this section of the Bill, which seems rather open-ended. I would have thought that the Joint Committee on Justice, Equality, Defence and Women's Rights would be the obvious committee before which the ombudsman would appear. I am slightly bemused as to why any other committee would require the ombudsman to appear before it. On this section I...

Seanad: Legal Services Ombudsman Bill 2008: Committee and Remaining Stages (3 Mar 2009)

Ivana Bacik: Again, this relates to the levy to be paid for the establishment of the expenses of the ombudsman, or "ombudsperson". I am grateful to Senator O'Donovan; I also like to use that word to symbolise that it could be a man or woman. This levy is to be paid by the Bar Council and Law Society. The Bar Council has approached the Minister and I did not table an amendment to subsection (4) because...

Seanad: Legal Services Ombudsman Bill 2008: Committee and Remaining Stages (3 Mar 2009)

Ivana Bacik: I am not putting it any higher than that.

Seanad: Legal Services Ombudsman Bill 2008: Committee and Remaining Stages (3 Mar 2009)

Ivana Bacik: Senator Norris has put his disbelief on the record. My other point is on the Minister's power by regulation to provide for the payment of the levy, but perhaps I will leave that for section 20.

Seanad: Legal Services Ombudsman Bill 2008: Committee and Remaining Stages (3 Mar 2009)

Ivana Bacik: I accept what Senator O'Donovan stated about solicitors being on the front line in that they offer services directly to clients much more frequently than barristers. I should stress that I approve of the idea of the levy. I certainly was not putting it any higher than simply raising the difference in numbers of complaints. I accept fully that both the Bar Council and the Law Society should...

Seanad: Legal Services Ombudsman Bill 2008: Committee and Remaining Stages (3 Mar 2009)

Ivana Bacik: It is 9,000 solicitors to 2,000 barristers.

Seanad: Legal Services Ombudsman Bill 2008: Committee and Remaining Stages (3 Mar 2009)

Ivana Bacik: I welcome this section. This is the crux of the Bill, enabling the making of complaints to the ombudsman. As I stated on Second Stage, I welcome it because it provides for a necessary degree of oversight and scrutiny of what for a long time has been regarded as self-regulating professions. I acknowledge the professions have made quite significant amendments to their own disciplinary...

Seanad: Legal Services Ombudsman Bill 2008: Committee and Remaining Stages (3 Mar 2009)

Ivana Bacik: I welcome the principle expressed in section 22. I have often been approached by people who are unhappy with the service they have received from a solicitor or barrister. Often delay is a major factor in people's dissatisfaction, with calls not being returned or unexplained delays in procedure. I know how difficult it is for practitioners to keep on top of work so there are points on both...

Seanad: Legal Services Ombudsman Bill 2008: Committee and Remaining Stages (3 Mar 2009)

Ivana Bacik: I echo Senator Norris's words of welcome for the Bill. I thank the Minister of State for all his work on it and for answering the points we raised with substantive replies, rather than formulaic ones that we sometimes get on legislation. The Bill will provide for an important extra layer of scrutiny, as has been said. It will improve the quality of services provided to members of the...

Seanad: Order of Business (4 Mar 2009)

Ivana Bacik: I welcome the announcement of the mini-budget or whatever the Government will call it. I also welcome the Government's inclusive approach in indicating that it will brief the Opposition on budgetary figures. That is very important, although Senator Ross is right that there is a danger for the Opposition in being brought in too closely. Deputy Joan Burton's call for the publication of the...

Seanad: Order of Business (4 Mar 2009)

Ivana Bacik: I thank the Deputy Leader.

Seanad: Adoption Bill 2009: Committee Stage (4 Mar 2009)

Ivana Bacik: It might be dangerous to include a line such as this because wherever legislation incorporates the text of a convention, it is always in English. If we start stipulating in express terms "in the English language" in a section such as this in one Bill, the danger is that in other legislation where we have not inserted that phrase, a lawyer in the years to come might claim the French text is...

Seanad: Adoption Bill 2009: Committee Stage (4 Mar 2009)

Ivana Bacik: I support this amendment. Like other Senators, I received information from the International Adoption Association that highlighted its concerns in respect of children who have been adopted or who may be adopted in future by Irish parents from countries without bilateral agreements but where they are being prepared but are not yet concluded, particularly Vietnam, Ethiopia and Russia. In...