Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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83. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality in view of the fact that the Legal Services Regulation Act 2015 was signed into law in December 2015 but to date, no commencement order regarding sections 149 to 161, inclusive, dealing with the regulation of legal costs has been effected; in view of the fact that the regulation of legal costs was one of the International Monetary Funds’s main areas of concern eight years ago; the reason she has not yet implemented sections 149 to 161, inclusive; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [28854/16]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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As I have previously outlined before the House, the Legal Services Regulation Act 2015 makes extensive provision in Part 10 for a new and enhanced legal costs regime that will bring greater transparency to how legal costs are charged along with a better balance between the interests of legal practitioners and those of their clients in this area. Part 10 of the Act is divided into five Chapters of which Chapter 3, consisting of sections 149 to 153, deals with the duties of legal practitioners in relation to legal costs. The remaining Chapters of this Part, including sections 154 to 161, deal with other aspects of the new legal costs regime including the new Office of the Legal Costs Adjudicators that will take over the work currently carried out by the Office of the Taxing-Master along with the way in which the new legal costs adjudication process will operate. There is no impediment to these provisions being commenced other than that of ensuring, through detailed planning and sequencing, that the relevant legal and administrative arrangements are properly in place within the Courts system and under the new legislative measures. It should be noted that the Legal Costs Adjudicators will, like the present Taxing-Masters, be officers of the Court. The Deputy will appreciate, therefore, that a significant transformation of the existing taxation of costs system is provided for in Part 10 of the Act and that this cannot be done overnight and must be managed carefully - including in terms of having the relevant personnel and expertise in place and given the fundamental legal procedures involved.

On 19 July, under S.I. No. 383, I commenced those provisions of Part 1 and Part 2 of the Legal Services Regulation Act as necessary to get the new Authority up and running, particularly in terms of its membership and appointment. Just last week, on 29 September, I signed the Order appointing 1 October 2016 as the official “establishment day” of the new Legal Services Regulatory Authority as provided under section 7 of the Legal Services Regulation Act. Following on from the setting of establishment day, it is intended that the phased commencement of the remaining Parts of the 2015 Act will be implemented over the remainder of this year - with some carry-over anticipated into early 2017 in relation to major undertakings such as the start-up of the Authority’s critical public complaints function. The current implementation period will, therefore, include the phased commencement of Parts of the 2015 Act such as those dealing with legal costs, the new Office of the Legal Costs Adjudicator, the Roll of Practising Barristers and Pre-Action Protocols. Following this, the key provisions centred around Part 6 of the Act dealing with the new public complaints and professional conduct and disciplinary procedures, and the appointment of the new Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal, will be commenced. The various legal costs provisions and Chapters of Part 10 of the 2015 Act are very much interlinked and will, therefore, be key to the overall success of the phased commencement of the Act over the coming period.