Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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160. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the progress his Department has made on implementing the legal reforms suggested under the EU/IMF restructure programme. [23291/23]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The EU-IMF-ECB (Troika) Programme of financial support for Ireland 2011-2014, required a number of actions by my Department.

The Legal Services Regulation Act of 2015 was one of the undertakings in support of structural reform, national competitiveness and economic recovery under the EU/IMF/ECB Memorandum of Understanding on Specific Economic Policy Conditionality of 28^thNovember 2010.  The Bill was one of a series of competing legislative priorities which had to be met in support of national recovery.

In more specific terms the Act delivered our Troika undertakings to establish an independent regulator for the legal profession; to implement the recommendations of the Legal Costs Working Group, and to implement the outstanding recommendations of the Competition Authority to reduce legal costs.

As the Deputy will be aware, the independent Legal Services Regulatory Authority was established in October 2016 to regulate and oversee the provision of legal services by legal practitioners and to ensure the maintenance and improvement of standards in the provisions of those services. The Authority is now fully operational as a key component of the ongoing reform of legal services and legal costs in the State. Complaints against legal professionals, both solicitors and barristers, are now being made to the Authority rather than through the legal professional bodies as happened previously. Separately, where appropriate, this work feeds into the new and independent Legal Practitioners' Disciplinary Tribunal (LPDT)

The separate establishment of the Office of the Legal Costs Adjudicators to modernise the old Taxing-Master regime has been completed by the Courts Service. This is supported, for the first time in legislation, by a transparent Schedule of Legal Costs Principles and a publicly accessible Register of Determinations, which is maintained by the new Office.

The necessary legislative amendment required to allow the introduction of Legal Partnerships (partnerships between barristers and between solicitors and barristers) is included in the Courts and Civil Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill currently progressing through the Oireachtas. The LSRA will be responsible for the regulated roll-out of this new business model once commenced.

The new and more consumer-friendly legal costs transparency requirements on legal practitioners, whether solicitors or barristers, have also come into force.

The Advisory Committee on the Grant of Patents of Precedence, which considers candidates to become Senior Counsel – be they solicitors or barristers – has been established with the administrative support of the Authority while chaired by the Chief Justice in its own right. The first grant of patents was made by Government on 1^stSeptember 2020. The third appointment process through this Committee in 2022 resulted in 34 recommendations, which were approved by Cabinet on 21^stJune 2022. The fourth process of this kind closed for applications on 18^thFebruary 2023 and the Advisory Committee is expected to make recommendations to Government shortly in that regard. 

Following receipt of the LSRA’s statutory reports on the Unification of the Legal Professions and on the Provision of Legal Professional Training and Education, my Department sought a further report by the Authority in relation to the economic and other barriers facing newly qualified barristers and solicitors.  Particular attention was to be given to equity of access and entry into the legal professions and the objective of achieving greater diversity within the professions.

On 31^stMarch 2022, the Authority submitted a report to my Department outlining the findings of its research in this area. A further Report, including recommendations, will be submitted to me on this topic in 2023 by the Authority. 

The LSRA is currently working on a statutory report relating to the creation of a new profession of Conveyancer which will also be submitted to me later in 2023.

In May 2022, my Department published the Civil Justice Efficiencies and Reform Implementation Plan, which sets out the actions and timeframes to give effect to the recommendations of the Report of the Review of the Administration of Civil Justice (Kelly Report), mapping out how this significant reform to civil law will be achieved. The implementation plan sets out how these recommendations will be implemented and by whom – all with the goal of enabling easier, cheaper and quicker access to civil justice. The actions in the plan are aligned to the major themes emerging from the Kelly recommendations which are being implemented across seven key work streams including to consider and advance measures to reduce the costs of litigation, including costs to the State.