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

All I can say is that it is those kinds of cost anomalies that one would expect a legal services regulatory authority to deal with. Schedule 1 deals with the whole cost issue. We are bringing a new transparency to costs. For example, somebody availing of legal services must be told upfront what the costs are going to be. As the Senator will know, in the past we have had a lot of complaints about cost issues. We have a schedule that deals with the range of costs and making sure the consumer is informed. If there is any expectation, as cases develop as they often do and different costs come into play, then the consumer or client has to be kept informed. There is a new legal costs adjudicator as well. The whole question of costs is central to the Bill in terms of a new transparency and an obligation on the legal services regulatory authority to oversee that.