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

As a result of the introduction of the new regulatory framework being put in place by the enactment of the Bill, a series of amendments need to be made to the existing provisions of the Solicitors Acts. We have a new framework here. We already have a series of Solicitors Acts in place. The new legal services regulatory authority will change the various issues regarding solicitors and barristers, including how complaints are dealt with. There will be a new regulatory framework and new oversight of financial management, and all the issues we have been discussing here. We have taken great care with this group of amendments. We were unable to do the work until we had the exact framework of the Bill in place. Only at this point could we work out the detailed amendments needed to all the Solicitors Acts in order to incorporate what is in the Legal Services Regulation Bill.What is being done in the entirety of this section is very technical. It involves detailed drafting in respect of which we engaged a lot of expertise and on which we spent a great deal of time to ensure the technical amendments to the Solicitors Acts reflect accurately the work being done in the legal services regulatory authority, LSRA, and the implications it has for the practice of the profession of solicitor. The series of amendments here is being made to the existing five Solicitors Acts. In the longer term, what will be required is the consolidation of the Solicitors Acts, but that is a separate job. For now, we suggest the range of amendments here in respect of the each of the Acts in place. There is no policy change other than what we have been discussing throughout the course of the debate on the Bill. This is merely about the transition into the Solicitors Acts of the LSRA and the implications it has for the Acts.

If I give an overview on the tabling of the amendments, it might be helpful to Senators. The tabling of these Government amendments is intended to ensure all complaints about the conduct of legal practitioners who are solicitors will, from the date of commencement, be taken under the relevant procedures of the new legal services regulatory authority. The amendments support the transitional arrangements for dealing with complaints already being dealt with under the Law Society's remit which will have to be completed by it under the existing regulations and processes. They remove any existing powers of the Law Society in relation to solicitors which will now be conferred instead on the new regulatory authority. They will ensure the existing powers and functions of the Law Society relating to the financial regulation of solicitors and to the solicitors' compensation fund are retained and firewalled. They will make the Law Society subject to and compliant with the relevant provisions and regulations of the new Bill under the new legal services regulatory authority. They will ensure relevant matters of misconduct can be amenable to the new legal practitioners' disciplinary tribunal, whether they arise from public complaints made to the legal services regulatory authority or as a result of the Law Society's retained financial and accounts regulation work. They will ensure that, when requested by the legal services regulatory authority, the Law Society will furnish the relevant investigating accountants reports in support of the handling of any public complaints relating to financial infringements. They will also ensure no regulatory gap is created between the existing regulations that need to remain in place and those that may be introduced in the future under the new regulatory authority regime.

Senators can see from the foregoing that the changes we are making must be reflected in the Solicitors Acts. These are the range of amendments, of which there are quite a few, to the five different Acts that must be made to ensure those Acts comply with the new regulatory authority.