Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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91. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality when she intends to commence part XIV of the Legal Services Regulation Act 2015; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [32927/16]

Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael)
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93. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the position regarding the commencement of the Legal Services Regulation Act; when the public complaints function of the Legal Services Regulatory Authority will commence; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [33022/16]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 91 and 93 together.

On 19 July, under S.I. No. 383 of 2016, I commenced those provisions of Part 1 and Part 2 of the Legal Services Regulation Act 2015 as necessary to get the new Regulatory Authority up and running, particularly in terms of its membership and appointment. On 29 September 2016, I signed the Order appointing 1 October 2016 as the official “establishment day” of the Regulatory Authority as provided under section 7 of the 2015 Act - S.I. No. 507 of 2016 refers. In conjunction with these initial steps the nomination, approval and appointment procedures for the eleven members of the new Legal Services Regulatory Authority set out in Part 2 of the 2015 Act have been completed. This has included the required resolutions approving such appointment having been passed by each House of the Oireachtas. Dr. Don Thornhill has also been appointed as Chairperson of the Regulatory Authority. The Authority, which has a lay majority and Chairperson, held its inaugural meeting on 26 October 2016. I had the opportunity to meet with the members of the Authority to mark this historic occasion which I have warmly welcomed as a key step towards the realisation of the important reforms to the provision of legal services and to the transparency of legal costs that are contained in the 2015 Act.

Now that the new Authority has had its inaugural meeting as an independent statutory regulator, the working focus is, of necessity, on the managed roll-out of the Authority's functions in tandem with the phased commencement, by the Government, of the various remaining Parts and provisions of the 2015 Act. This is no mean endeavour as the setting of establishment day of the Authority for 1 October 2016 has automatically triggered a number of working obligations on the new Authority. Moreover, several of these are statute-bound in terms of their delivery deadlines and in terms of the completion of public consultations and reports on the specified matters concerned. These are tasks for which the new Authority will need to build up its working resources in the short term. Both my Department and the new Regulatory Authority will, therefore, continue to liaise closely by way of ensuring that we can successfully coordinate the commencement, from my side as Minister, and delivery, by the Authority as the new independent statutory regulator, of the various provisions concerned.

Against this background, it is intended that the phased commencement of the remaining Parts of the 2015 Act will be implemented over the remainder of this year and into early 2017 in relation to major undertakings such as the start-up of the Authority’s critical public complaints function. The immediate focus includes 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, Pre-Action Protocols and of the miscellaneous provisions of Part 15 to which Deputy O'Callaghan has referred. Following this, in the new year, 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 in tandem with the developing resource base and capability of the new body. As Deputy Kehoe has anticipated, the successful commencement of the public complaints functions will be central to the new regulatory framework. I would anticipate that the planning and progress of all of these matters will come to be determined in much more precise terms by my Department in conjunction with the Legal Services Regulatory Authority over the coming weeks.