Denis O'Donovan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I second the amendment proposed by my colleague, Senator Wilson.

I will comment on what my good colleague, Senator Barrett, has said regarding the legal services Bill. This Bill was mooted four years ago. If we are being honest in this House, it was basically set aside until the Law Society, of which, I confess, I am a paid-up member, and the Bar Council in one sense bullied their way with the then Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Shatter. It is going in the direction of a concoction of a Bill that is not good for the public at large. Whether one is a solicitor or a barrister, one serves the people and there must be rules and regulations. I agree with much of what Senator Barrett said about it being so long since the Bill was mooted. The Bill that was first published four years ago and the one that is appearing now, as amended in the Dáil and with amendments today, are so different that it is like comparing chalk with cheese. We should take a step back on this for fear of not getting it right.

We have been waiting probably 50 years for a Bill to reform how legal services are provided. We are coming up to Christmas and the end of term, and with an election coming, it appears there is a rush by the Government to get this done, irrespective of what the outcomes will be. If we get the wrong outcomes, the public, the citizens, whether unemployed, working class or well-off, in west Cork, Donegal or on the streets of Dublin, are the ones who will suffer from rushed legislation. We should stand back. If we have to sit a few days extra coming up to Christmas or sit a week earlier in the new year, I am in favour of that because rushing this through at this stage, having regard to the fact that it has been parked up for four years, does not make sense at all.