Niall Ó Donnghaile (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State has put in a long slog in the House today so he will be glad to hear I will probably not use all of my speaking time.

There was some concern in my party in regard to the delay in producing the text of this motion. This appointments process has been ongoing since January so I am not sure why this was the case. I just wanted to have that concern logged.Regardless of that, we welcome the motion and we are supportive of the legal services regulatory authority getting off the ground as efficiently and effectively as possible.

Sinn Féin is going to reserve judgment for the moment on whether the Act and the new regulatory body will be effective in lowering costs for persons accessing the legal system. The responsibility will be on the legal services regulatory authority to demonstrate its independence from the legal profession, a point touched on by the previous speaker. In order to show that it is effective, we suggest that the Oireachtas justice committee should invite members of the authority to appear before the committee at a later stage to discuss their work. I hope this is something they would be willing to do as part of regular engagement and interaction and to bring feedback to Members of both Houses through the committee. It will, of course, be two years before they report back formally, so such a move might be an opportunity for them to come to the committee to sustain that engagement with the Parliament.

We are hopeful too that the new authority will address matters of codes of conduct, admission requirements to the legal professions, conflicts of interest and the long-standing need to address the barriers to public interest litigation that exist within this jurisdiction, as the Minister of State is aware. Indeed, I need not tell anyone in the Chamber that conflicts of interest are a major issue for the public when it comes to major firms. This problem has generated a series of confidence issues among the broader public. I do not think I need to go into particular cases because people will be well aware of them.

While this motion is a step in the right direction, it is clear that real changes to the legal profession will take at least another decade. That is why I would like to emphasise the importance of engagement with the Parliament. I appreciate this will not be done through the Minister of State but I imagine he will consider lending his support and bringing whatever influence he can to bear to ensure that authority members are engaging with us regularly and that we have a positive oversight role. This does not mean veering into interference but rather that we have an opportunity, on behalf of the people we represent, who have long-standing and understandable concerns, to ensure that this body is operating as effectively as it can.