Written answers

Tuesday, 15 November 2016

Department of Justice and Equality

Commencement of Legislation

Photo of Jim O'CallaghanJim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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153. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality if she will provide a schedule and timeline for her plans to commence Part 14 of the Legal Services Regulation Act 2015; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [35016/16]

Photo of Frances FitzgeraldFrances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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As I have outlined in my Written Reply to Questions Number 91 and 93 on 2 November 2016, it is intended that the phased commencement of the remaining sections and Parts of the Legal Services Regulation 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 and Pre-Action Protocols. 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.

Now that the members and Chairperson of the Legal Services Regulatory Authority have been duly nominated, approved by motions of each House of the Oireachtas and appointed and have held their inaugural meeting on 26 October 2016, the working focus is, of necessity, on the managed roll-out of the Authority's functions. For the sake of good order this has to be done in tandem with the phased commencement, by the Government, of the various remaining Parts and provisions of the 2015 Act. Moreover, the setting of establishment day of the Authority for 1 October 2016 has automatically triggered a number of working obligations on the new Authority several of which 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 and I know that the Authority is already taking action in this regard. 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.

I would also point to the fact that Part 14 of the 2015 Act contains a series of miscellaneous provisions which deal with a range of matters and is not, therefore, a Part which deals with a single component of the new regulatory regime. These provisions, therefore, are of varied application in relation to the rest of the 2015 Act and are being dealt with accordingly in the ongoing determination of their respective commencement dates. As the Deputy will be aware, the general commencement provision in Section 1 of the Act is such as to allow for the commencement of particular provisions within a Part, where necessary, without a necessity to commence the entirety of the provisions in that Part. The provisions of Part 14 deal with disparate matters such as the legal immunity of the Regulatory Authority; the right of audience of solicitors; barristers in employment providing legal services to their employer; money laundering; restriction on withdrawal from a case; the service of notices; regulation of movement between the two legal professions and the advertising of legal services. Aligning all of these issues across the 2015 Act is, therefore, a complex task for which a unilateral solution cannot be imposed. I continue to 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.

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