Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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520. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality his proposals to amend the Legal Services Regulation Bill 2011 with regard to the appointment of lay persons to the board of the Legal Services Regulatory Authority announced at the recent annual conference of the Law Society; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25291/13]

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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521. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality if the reported amendments to the Legal Services Regulation Bill 2011 will set out the process, means and criteria by which the Law Society of Ireland and Bar Council of Ireland will select lay members for nomination to the Board of the Legal Services Regulatory Authority; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25292/13]

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 520 and 521 together.

The Legal Services Regulation Bill 2011 gives legislative expression to the commitment in the Programme for Government to "establish independent regulation of the legal professions to improve access and competition, make legal costs more transparent and ensure adequate procedures for addressing consumer complaints". Furthermore, as a sectoral objective under the EU/IMF/ECB Troika Memorandum of Understanding, it supports the objectives of structural reform, national competitiveness and early economic recovery, building on the relevant recommendations of the Legal Costs Working Group and the Competition Authority. The Bill, which has completed Second Stage, is due to commence Committee Stage in July.

From the outset, and as evident from the provisions of Part 2 of the Bill as published, it is permeated by the principle of lay representation and I will be developing this and other aspects of the Bill further in the course of Committee Stage. It has never been stated or intended that the Law Society or the Bar Council would select lay members of the new Legal Services Regulatory Authority - indeed, this would run contrary to the Bill's policy objective of more independent regulation of the legal professions and of legal costs.

As I have previously indicated in my statement to the House at the closing of the Bill's Second Stage and on numerous occasions since, including more recently at the Law Society, I will be bringing forward amendments to the Legal Services Regulation Bill at Committee Stage to enhance and copper-fasten the independence of appointment of members of the Legal Services Regulatory Authority - a majority of whom shall be lay persons. I will be proposing that this be done by means of nominating bodies among whom will be numerous bodies of relevance to the mandate of the new Regulatory Authority in addition to the legal professional bodies. In a similar vein, I will be enhancing the modalities of appointment of members to the Complaints Committee and of the Legal Practitioners' Disciplinary Tribunal. I also intend to bring forward an amendment to stagger the appointment of members of the Authority to ensure its continuity and minimise the scope for external interference by a wholesale reconfiguration. Taken together, these amendments will put to rest previously voiced concerns about the independence of the new regulatory regime. As I have previously stated, details of these amendments will be made available in advance of Committee Stage.