Niall Collins (Limerick, Fianna Fail)
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Question 520: To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality when the office of the legal services ombudsman will be up and running. [8021/12]

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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In the course of my opening contribution to the Second Stage debate on the Legal Services Regulation Bill 2011, which is nearing completion, I recalled to the House the decision taken in May 2011 not to proceed with the appointment of a Legal Services Ombudsman. This is because the oversight model proposed in the Legal Services Ombudsman Act 2009 was that of supervised self-regulation. Such a degree of self-regulation does not meet this Government's policy commitment to greater independence in the regulation of the legal professions. The 2011 Bill, therefore, contains a package of more independent structural reforms. These will be delivered as part of our national EU/IMF/ECB undertakings in support of greater competitiveness and early economic recovery. They will take the form of a new, independent Legal Services Regulatory Authority; an independent procedure to deal with complaints of professional misconduct, and the establishment of an independent Legal Practitioners' Disciplinary Tribunal. The Bill also provides for a more modern, consumer-friendly and transparent legal costs regime under the Office of the Legal Costs Adjudicator that will take-over the functions of the Taxing-Master. With the establishment of this more independent, regulatory regime under current Government policy the Legal Services Ombudsman Act of 2009 will be repealed.