Joanna Tuffy (Dublin Mid West, Labour)
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Question 180: To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the position regarding the proposed establishment of a legal services authority and the issues that have been raised in the Joint Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality on behalf of staff currently employed by Law Society under its current regulatory remit; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28678/12]

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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The position in relation to this matter remains as indicated in my written Reply to Question number 313 of 8 May 2012. I have also addressed this matter in the course of my speech and open discussion of the modernisation and reform of the legal sector at the Annual Conference of the Law Society on 14th April - the full text of the speech remains available on my Department's web-site, www.justice.ie, for ease of reference.

As I have conveyed on such previous occasions, the new Legal Services Regulatory Authority to be established under the Legal Services Regulation Bill 2011 will be independent of the legal professions and of the Government in the performance of its functions. This will include new and independent procedures relating to allegations of professional misconduct by either solicitors or barristers. Such complaints will be dealt with under the auspices of the Authority's Complaints Committee and supported, where appropriate, by the work of the new and independent Legal Practitioners' Disciplinary Tribunal. Under the Bill, members of the public will no longer go to the Law Society or to the Bar Council and their respective disciplinary tribunals to deal with complaints, as happens at the moment, but will instead do so through the Legal Services Regulatory Authority.

The Law Society has, earlier this year, recognised that it would be "in the best interests of the public and the profession" if complaints about solicitors were no longer to be dealt with by the Society but by the new Regulatory Authority to be established under the Bill. I have commended this development because it will underpin public perceptions of impartiality in the regime governing the conduct and discipline of the legal professions to the utmost degree. The independence of the new Regulatory Authority and of its attendant complaints and Disciplinary Tribunal procedures is, therefore, fundamental to their success and to the avoidance of any perception that complaints about lawyers are being dealt with by lawyers themselves or by their representative bodies. Under the Legal Services Regulation Bill 2011 the complaints systems currently operated by the legal professional bodies are to be replaced by new procedures the independence of which will have to be reflected in the relevant recruitment and appointment processes. In closing the Second Stage debate on the Bill and in my address to the Law Society of 14 April, I have confirmed that I am considering possible Committee Stage amendments to create appropriately independent procedures for the appointment of members of the Legal Services Regulatory Authority, its Complaints Committee and of the Legal Practitioners' Disciplinary Tribunal. Similarly, I expressed the view that staff appointments to the new Authority would be better made by the Authority itself under a public competition carried out by the Public Appointments Service. While the transition to a new and independent complaints procedure under the Bill will have an impact on staff currently involved in that area it will be open to such staff - who would obviously possess the relevant skills and experience - to offer to apply for positions advertised by the new and independent Legal Services Regulatory Authority.