Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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85. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality further to Parliamentary Question No. 81 of 15 February 2017, the date on which she expects that the legal services regulatory authority will be fully operational; and when it will be regulating the legal profession. [8945/17]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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By way of supplementing the important information set out in my earlier Written Reply to Question No.81 of 15 February 2016, I would like to reiterate that the current working focus remains very much on the phased commencement of the respective sections or Parts of the Legal Services Regulation Act 2015. I would also like to assure the Deputy that the Chairperson and members of the Legal Services Regulatory Authority, its Interim Chief Executive and my Department are working closely to ensure that we can successfully coordinate the identification of the necessary steps and commencements by the Department, and the delivery, by the Authority as the new independent statutory regulator, of the various provisions concerned. This will include key milestones such as the coming on stream of the new public complaints and professional conduct provisions contained in Part 6 of the 2015 Act which are a bedrock of the new regulatory regime. It will also include the compilation, within a six-month period, of the new Roll of Practising Barristers which forms the basis, for the first time in legislation, for the regulation of barristers. Underlying all of these matters is the fact that the Legal Services Regulatory Authority has been established, in the public interest, as an independent regulator in terms of both its appointment and the discharge of its functions. This protects the independence of the legal professions and of the courts as well as the interests and confidentiality of legal clients. It is important in this context that the Regulatory Authority be afforded a reasonable opportunity to deliver its mandate efficiently and effectively and, most importantly, with the necessary working supports in place. While it remains the intention that the Legal Services Regulatory Authority will be in substantive regulatory mode later this year, the phased start-up of its various functions along the lines I have expressed will need careful project management. This will involve setting, over the next six weeks or so and in conjunction with the Authority, the specific target dates for the delivery of the various functions involved.