Terence Flanagan (Dublin North East, Fine Gael)
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Question 14: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform if he will report on allegations that solicitors are acting as criminal intelligence officers for criminal gangs; if criminal investigations are taking place in respect of the alleged misconduct; the action he proposes to take to address such issues; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31478/09]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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I take it what the Deputy has in mind in referring to solicitors acting as 'criminal intelligence officers' for criminal gangs are any instances where solicitors may improperly pass information to their clients who are members of gangs.

I should stress, initially, that I am satisfied that the vast majority of solicitors behave with the utmost propriety in their dealings with clients. That said, I am aware of suggestions that a tiny minority of solicitors have been behaving improperly in the context outlined in the Deputy's question.

It is because the numbers involved would be so small that I am constrained in what I can say to the House about particular investigations which may be under way at this time. Any such information might tend to lead to the indentification of the suspects concerned. I can, in any event, assure the House is that I am advised by the Garda Commissioner that instances where it is believed that solicitors have been involved in criminal activity have been, and will continue to be, fully investigated by the Gardaí and files submitted to the Director of Prosecutions.

I have no doubt either that the regulatory body for solicitors, the Law Society, would treat with great seriousness any evidence of such improper activity on the part of its members.

For my own part, the House will be aware that I took certain measures in the Criminal Justice (Amendment) Act, 2009 to counteract this problem through providing, in strictly defined circumstances, for particular evidence relating to an ongoing investigation to be heard in private. During the course of the passage of the legislation in the House I expressed the view that the exclusion of legal representatives was necessary, not just to deal with the activities of a very small number of solicitors who might behave improperly, but to avoid a situation where legal representatives, if they were allowed to remain, could come under extreme pressure from their clients to disclose certain matters to them.