State watchdog says Fitzgerald gave lawyers ‘veto’ on Bill

The State's consumer and competition watchdog has accused Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald of granting the legal profession a "veto" over reforms to the sector and of a "complete emasculation" of promised changes.

The Cabinet on Tuesday approved amendments from Ms Fitzgerald to the Legal Services Regulation Bill, first proposed by Alan Shatter in 2011, which grant big concessions to the representative bodies for barristers and solicitors.

The views of the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) were attached to the memorandum Ms Fitzgerald brought to Cabinet, and would have been considered by Ministers.

In the submission, seen by The Irish Times, the CCPC says "the views of the Law Society and the Bar Council have been privileged over those of the consumers of legal services – the clients of the legal profession".

The scathing submission also said both bodies had been given “a veto over the provisions of the Bill”.

Amendments

The amendments, likely to be some of the final changes to the Bill, were signed off by Ministers and will be published on Wednesday.

The CCPC also said that there had been a “lack of engagement” with it on the Bill and the proposed amendments.

It said this “is 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”.

It maintains the Bill "falls far short" of promises made by Fine Gael and Labour in their programme for government and undertakings given to the troika.

A spokesman for the Minister said it “did not accept the premise” of the CCPC’s concerns and said Ms Fitzgerald’s reforms would increase competition in the sector.