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

Amendment No. 28 deals both with the power of the legal services regulatory authority to obtain information and documentation from legal practitioners and the protection of the legal professional privilege rights of persons in respect of any such information and documentation. The amendment inserts a new section 17 which obliges a legal practitioner, if so requested by the authority, to provide any information required by the authority for the performance of its functions and, at the same time, to protect a person, other than a legal practitioner - for example, a client - from having to disclose any information or documentation the person would be entitled to refuse to produce on grounds of legal professional privilege. A legal practitioner is obliged to provide any information requested, but subsection (3) of the new section 17 provides that this may only be used by the authority for discharging its functions under the Act in respect of legal practitioners. In other words, it is essentially about regulating practitioners and dealing with complaints. I have been advised by the Attorney General that it is legally necessary to provide for these matters in the Bill, particularly as regards protection of legal professional privilege. The new section serves to protect clients while also retaining the obligation on practitioners to provide information required by the legal services regulatory authority.