Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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715. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality when all provisions of the Legal Services Regulation Act 2015 will be commenced. [26718/17]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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886. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the status of the new Legal Services Regulatory Authority; the way in which a person can access the services of the Authority; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28952/17]

Charles Flanagan (Laois, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 715 and 886 together.

The setting-up of the Legal Services Regulatory Authority, whose establishment day the Tánaiste, during her time as Minister for Justice and Equality, had set by Order for 1 October 2016, has been underway since July 2016. At that time, the Tánaiste commenced Parts 1 and 2 of the Legal Services Regulation Act 2015 as necessary to get the new Authority underway, particularly in terms of its nomination and appointment with the necessary motions of approval of the Houses of the Oireachtas. As part of the commencement of Part 2 of the 2015 Act, the Law Society, the Bar Council and the Honorable Society of the King's Inns furnished the Legal Services Regulatory Authority with copies of their professional codes as required within one month of the Authority's establishment under section 23(6)(a). In December 2016 sections 118 to 120 of the 2015 Act were commenced to enable the conduct of public consultations and reports by the new Regulatory Authority within the statutory periods concerned. These relate to Legal Partnerships (between solicitors and barristers or barristers and barristers - solicitors can already operate partnerships), Multi-Disciplinary Practices (where legal practitioners can provide their services together with other non-legal services providers) and certain restrictions on the work of barristers. The Authority, for which initial office accommodation has been provided by my Department along with the secondment of an officer at Assistant Principal level, also appointed an Interim Chief Executive on 1 January 2016. The Authority has met six times since its inaugural meeting on 26 October 2016, with its most recent meeting taking place on 25 May 2017. Funding support of €1 million was provided to the new Authority by my Department in December 2016. This is being done on a strictly recoupable basis as the Authority will be self-funding by levy with a similar allocation available to the Authority under my Department's Vote for this year.

On 31 March 2016, the Regulatory Authority presented respective reports under sections 118 and 119 to the Tánaiste, during her time as Minister for Justice and Equality, and these have been laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas. These reports, which were completed under very tight statutory deadlines, are historical as the first formal outputs of the Authority in the discharge of its legislative functions. On 6 April 2016 the Authority commenced its public consultations process under section 120 of the Act about certain restrictions on the work of barristers - these arise with regard to the holding of clients monies and to the direct provision of services to a client in relation to contentious matters. More recently, the Authority has submitted its first Annual Report which, under the relevant terms of the Act, covers its activities for the quarter since establishment on 1 October to the end of 2016 and this has also been laid before each House of the Oireachtas. The various reports prepared by the Legal Services Regulatory Authority are also available, along with minutes of meetings and other information, on its web page which is under development at www.LSRA.ie and will, I understand, continue to provide information over time as appropriate to the roll-out of its functions. Information will also be made available by my Department in the making of the relevant Commencement Orders under the 2015 Act that will support this process.

Alongside these developments, the working focus right now is on the managed roll-out of the Authority's remaining functions with the matching development of its organisational capacities and office and staffing resources. The preparations for commencement of the 2015 Act include, under Part 10 of the Act, the introduction of a more transparent legal costs regime and the parallel transition, within the courts system, of the Office of the Taxing-Master to that of the Legal Costs Adjudicators; and the establishment by the new Authority of a Roll of Practising Barristers under Part 9; the introduction by the Authority of new regulations for the advertising of legal services under section 218 and the separate introduction, by my Department, of Pre-Action Protocols in medical negligence cases under Part 15 which is to take place soon. Following these steps, the key structural reforms of Part 6 of the Act relating to public complaints, professional conduct and the appointment of the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal, will be commenced.

As the Deputy will be aware, the Legal Services Regulatory Authority is currently conducting an independent public recruitment campaign for a long-term Chief Executive. I understand that this process is at a very advanced stage and that its outcome will soon be announced. At the same time, 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 remaining provisions concerned. While it remains the intention that the Legal Services Regulatory Authority will come into substantive regulatory mode in these areas during the latter part of this year and early in 2018, the phased start-up of its various functions will need careful project management and the identification in conjunction with the Authority, of more specific delivery dates for the respective functions involved. This is something I expect to take place, including with the appointment of a new full-time Chief Executive, over the coming weeks.