Lawyers’ lobby groups ‘alone amid fight for reform’

LAWYERS’ lobby groups are the only ones who don’t believe the legal profession is in need to reform, according to Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny.

Taking a cut off solicitors and barristers, while criticising the slow rate of reform in the country, Mr Kenny said reform needed to be railroaded in the crucial areas of insurance, banking and the professions.

Addressing the Waterford Chamber of Commerce, Mr Kenny said the Competition Authority’s investigation into the professions would not be published until well into next year, despite being first announced back in 2001.

“To make matters worse it seems that the last profession to be studied by the Authority will be the legal profession, where all except Bar Council zealots, believe there must be radical change to work practices in order to achieve savings in legal bills for businesses across the country,” he said.

Outlining what he described as a New Agenda For Irish Business, Mr Kenny said his parties new policy is based on a series of corporate rights and responsibilities.

The party is proposing that new legislation be analysed to ensure it doesn’t impact negatively on business, that the audit threshold for small business rise to 3 million and to a raise the threshold for VAT collections to 100,000 to ease the burdens on small business.

Fine Gael also wants the Government to be part of the solution to inflation by freezing utility charges by profitably State monopolies and the party will revisit public service benchmarking and secure real service improvements before any extra money is paid out.

The last part of the plan would see the party pushing through reform of banks, professions and the insurance sector.

Yet in return, the Fine Gael leader says businesses will have to stop engaging in opportunistic price hikes and provide pricing information to the public.

“End the rip off. Pursue an open and transparent pricing strategy for your products and services, one that gives the public all the information they need to know.

“Because, one thing is sure: screw the customer, kill the goose, no more golden eggs,” he said.