New legal services bill will not make it easier to access courts claims Renua TD
Renua TD Billy Timmins and economist Stephen Kinsella both criticised the “watered down” bill which was passed by the Dáil yesterday claiming people will pay more for legal services.
Mr Timmins, who had called for multidisciplinary regulation of solicitors, barristers and others in the legal profession said: “This has been a complete backtrack by the minister.”
A Legal Services Regulatory Authority will be established comprising 11 members — six of whom will be lay people.
However, a completely independent regulation system had been called for and yesterday Mr Kinsella said: “I don’t think you can have the legal service being able to regulate itself in any way.
“I think world-class international governance, which we should aspire to, would demand an independent authority that would be able to regulate and prosecute.”
Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald yesterday published over 100 amendments to the Legal Services Regulation Bill, which was first brought in by her predecessor Alan Shatter in 2011.
However, University of Limerick lecturer Mr Kinsella said the vast amounts of changes made to the bill will not save the public money and “consumers are going to end up paying more”.
The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) had criticised the Department of Justice for giving priority to the Law Society and the Bar Council and said they had been given “a veto over the provisions of the bill”.
The CCPC said there had been a “lack of engagement” with it, which was “in stark contrast to what has clearly been a high level of engagement with the representative bodies of the legal profession, who have a vested interest in retaining the status quo, and with whom there appears to have been ongoing discussion over a number of years.”
Mr Timmins said: “The context of this legislation was to make the services more competitive and not to self-regulate and I think the minister has done a complete U-turn on these measures.”
But publishing the Legal Services Regulation Bill Ms Fitzgerald said the amendments are designed “to strengthen the proposed regulatory powers for the new Legal Services Regulatory Authority”.
She also said the amendments would introduce and regulate new business models, including Limited Liability Partnerships; and provide robust oversight powers for the authority in relation to functions to be carried out by the Law Society.
She said: “The Government’s intention is that this bill will now be enacted before the Dáil rises for the Christmas recess so that the new authority will be up and running early in 2016.”
But Mr Kinsella said: “Regulation is vital, especially in a very small country like Ireland
“The competition commission feel it has been shut out of being consulted with regards to the implementation of the deal.”
