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

Amendment No. 38 follows further consultations with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and rightfully recognises that the independent legal services regulatory authority will not handle fees for the benefit of the Exchequer but rather in support of its own functions under the Bill. Amendment No. 180 provides for the change in the manner in which the authority will handle the levy to be paid by the Law Society, the Bar Council and other barristers. The amendment makes it clear that finance coming into the authority from the levy will be used by the authority to defray its operation costs. Amendment No. 73 is intended to safeguard the public interest regarding regulatory costs and ensuring affordable public access to the new complaints process.

Amendments Nos. 162 and 163 have been tabled to ensure the delicate balance of payment between the legal professions is maintained and enhanced. The amendments are designed to ensure the levy is property apportioned amongst solicitors and barristers. The amendment makes it clear that the cohort of barristers liable for payment of the levy include those who may have ceased to practise after the date of the act or omission cited as the cause of a complaint. Amendment No. 181 is a linked amendment which sets out a definition.Deputy Sean D. Barrett's amendment, No. 182, would prevent the new regulatory authority from raising a levy on those barristers who will be regulated by it and who choose to practise outside the Law Library model. It would also prevent the authority from issuing the relevant notice to those practitioners or professional bodies that will give rise to its regulatory costs each year. As that would be the effect of the Senator's amendment, he might reconsider it, as I cannot accept it in that format.