Dáil approves Legal Services Regulatory Authority appointments

Appointments to the Authority must be approved by both Houses of the Oireachtas before they take effect.

The nominees and their nominating bodies are:

Government minister David Stanton, speaking in the Dáil on behalf of Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald, said: “As Deputies will appreciate, the establishment of this new Regulatory Authority and the assumption by it of regulatory oversight of all legal practitioners in the State, including the handling of complaints against them, and the Authority’s responsibility to oversee the operation and opening up of the legal services market in Ireland, are historical structural reforms of the regulatory architecture in these areas.

“Under today’s motion it is also being proposed that the relevant appointments to the new Legal Services Regulatory Authority, once approved, will be with effect from the Authority’s establishment day.

“Under section 7 of the Legal Services Regulation Act the Tánaiste will shortly, therefore, be making the required order to set 1st October 2016 as the establishment day of the Legal Services Regulatory Authority.

“The setting of 1st October 2016 as ‘establishment day’ will give momentum to the establishment and coming into operation of the new Legal Services Regulatory Authority and will trigger a number of specific measures under the Act.

“It will provide greater focus and depth to the process of modernisation and change that the new regulatory regime is intended to deliver.”