Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

This amendment reflects the policy decision taken by Government that a review of the effectiveness of the legislation should be conducted within 18 of the enactment of the Bill rather than within the longer two-year period we agreed earlier. Amendment No. 14 is a technical amendment to better clarify the application of the section, specifically by reference to Part 7 of the Bill, which would be a review of the operation of the levy that will fund the new authority and disciplinary tribunal.

The intention behind amendment No. 15 is to ensure that the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission will be among the bodies consulted in the periodic review of the functions of the Act. I have made sure it is included and that when the review is taking place within 18 months, the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission will be involved in the review of the function of the authority, ensuring that the commission's two areas of competence are taken into account and the first such review will be 18 months after the establishment of the new authority.

In respect of Opposition amendment No. 212, while I appreciate what Senators Barrett and Quinn are trying to do here in that they want to expedite the review of the operation of the section dealing with the legal partnerships, which was discussed some time ago, it would be very difficult for the legal services regulatory authority to compress the period of review from four years to two years. There is a critical degree to which we have no ensure that the new authority is not hindered from bedding down into what I would call its effective core business and core functions on establishment by the imposition of too many reports that it has to do after establishment. We have to take a position on this that the first job of the authority is to start to set itself up as an efficient authority, hire staff and begin to embed the processes that it will use during the work it does. Obviously, we have given it a series of reports to do. The first job is to establish itself and to hear the complaints that come in from the public. Approximately 1,500 complaints come in every year in relation to solicitors and barristers. That is the core job. We have asked it to establish a new form of legal partnerships within the first year, which is a very important job. That is quite a sea change. We have given it a series of dates for it to do other reports.

If we bring back the timeframe I have given in relation to multidisciplinary partnerships from the four years, it will be a very demanding request on a new authority at this point. I have considered very carefully the timeframe within which the LSRA can do the various reports and all things considered with a new body, the approach we are taking is reasonable.