Seanad debates

Thursday, 7 July 2011

Civil Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2011: Report Stage and Final Stages.

 

5:00 pm

Photo of Sean BarrettSean Barrett (Independent)

I am delighted to hear that news and thank the Minister and Senator Ivana Bacik for drawing it to my attention.

The next provision I wish to address is the one that imposes a term limit. When we were working on this amendment, we went through 757 pages of Taxation of Costs by James T. Flynn and Tony Halpin and term limits were not mentioned, nor was the early retirement point dealt with by Senator Ivana Bacik. The Taxing Master has an extremely important role to play. Will he or she be compromised by the fact that he or she must find something else to do in five years? Paragraphs (a) and (c) provide that the appointment cannot be renewed. We require independence rather than a Taxing Master who is wondering what his or her next career step will be. I favour tenure for the Taxing Master in view of the important task he or she carries out.

As the Minister brought to our attention, this is included in the IMF-EU agreement which states the legal profession needs regulation. We have a problem with excess costs. According to data from Forfás and the Central Statistics Office, since 2006 legal costs have increased by 12%, while accountancy costs have decreased by 7%; therefore, a 20 point differential has opened up. We have a serious problem with legal costs and I am anxious that we have a stronger Taxing Master, with security of tenure in the post, tackling these costs, rather than introducing the uncertainty that he or she could be gone after five years, or that he or she might need to make arrangements with people as to his or her future career, which could compromise the independence of the post. It could result in Members of the Seanad and the Minister answering to the IMF for why we did not reduce legal costs and for why we inadvertently undermined the independence and authority of the Taxing Master. I oppose the fixed term and the provision that one may have only one term on both of these grounds.

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