Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 9a:

In page 11, line 30, after "Society" to insert ", the Honourable Society of King’s Inns".

My amendment would insert the words "the Honourable Society of King's Inns" to add that society to the list of professional bodies in the definition section. I should also stress that adding the King's Inns to the list of professional bodies in this section does not interfere in any way with the scheme contemplated by the Bill for the future regulation of this sector.

I do not understand why this amendment has been grouped with other amendments and somebody might be able to explain it. Leaving that aside, in the interests of full transparency, I should declare a personal interest. I am a graduate of the King's Inns, having spent four happy years there, and I am currently a barrister on leave.

The King's Inns is the original professional body for lawyers in Ireland with a recorded history going back to 1541. It is the original professional body from which the two more recently established legal professional bodies, the Law Society and the Bar Council originally sprang. Its continuing role in the legal world is explicitly recognised at several points in the Bill, including the provision giving the King's Inns the right to nominate a member to the board of the new Legal Services Authority. It remains the disciplinary body for the barrister profession for the purposes of processing outstanding cases of complaints against barristers referred to it by the Bar Council, and it retains that power until the new regulatory body ultimately takes over the responsibility to process complaints against barristers and to impose sanctions against them up to and including disbarment. Those are the reasons that I believe the Honourable Society of King's Inns needs to be added to list of professional bodies.