Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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208. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality when a commencement order will be signed to commence the operation of Part 12 of the Legal Services Regulation Act 2015; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42611/17]

Charles Flanagan (Laois, Fine Gael)
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Under Part 12 of the Legal Services Regulation Act 2015 there is to be a new Advisory Committee on the Grant of Patents of Precedence that will be established by the Legal Services Regulatory Authority. As well as receiving and considering relevant applications, the Committee will recommend legal practitioners, that is to say solicitors or barristers, it considers suitable to use the title of Senior Counsel to the Government by way of their being granted a Patent of Precedence. The Committee will also establish the criteria to be met by legal practitioners in order for such a recommendation to be made. These will be based on a number of objectives specified in section 173(2) of the 2015 Act including that the legal practitioner concerned will, in his or her practice, have displayed a degree of competence and a degree of probity appropriate to and consistent with the granting of a Patent of Precedence along with professional independence. These objectives also include a proven capacity for excellence in the practice of advocacy; in the practice of specialist litigation; or in specialist knowledge of an area of law. The Advisory Committee framework will, therefore, replace the current procedures in this area while also placing them on a more formal and transparent footing.

The Advisory Committee, which can also recommend the revocation of a Patent of Precedence, will be chaired by the Chief Justice and will also comprise the President of the High Court; the Attorney General; the Chairperson of the Bar Council; the President of the Law Society and a lay member of the Legal Services Regulatory Authority who will be nominated by the Minister for Justice and Equality. I will also be bringing forward an amendment to the 2015 Act to include, as a member, the President of the Court of Appeal whose coming into office had not been anticipated at the time of publication of the Legal Services Regulation Bill in 2011.

The establishment of the Advisory Committee on the Grant of Patents of Precedence is both a key reform and a key component of the managed and phased roll-out of its legislative functions by the Legal Services Regulatory Authority including in the matching development of its organisational capacities and office and staffing resources. This will, in addition to the amendment to which I have referred, involve the detailed preparation by the Regulatory Authority of the procedures and application criteria for the consideration and recommendation of candidates for the title of Senior Counsel and the inauguration of the Advisory Committee. In respecting the Authority's independence in the roll-out and exercise of its statutory functions, I and my Department continue to work closely with the Authority to enable it to come into substantive regulatory mode at the earliest opportunity. The phased start-up of its various functions, including those which arise under Part 12, will continue to need careful project management. It will also require the ongoing identification, in conjunction with the Authority, of the more specific delivery dates for the respective independent functions involved during the remainder of this year and into 2018. These are matters in support of which I will make the relevant Commencement Orders at the appropriate time.