Long-delayed draft legislation to reform the legal profession is due to be formally brought before the Cabinet today barring any last-minute difficulties.
The Legal Services Regulation Bill was first published in 2011 but has been subject to long delays arising from adverse reaction to some of the more controversial provisions put forward by Minister for Justice Alan Shatter.
The most contentious has been his plan to allow for multidisciplinary practices, or “one- stop shops” for solicitors, barristers and other professionals.
That proposal has been opposed by barristers. Among the arguments they have put forward is such arrangements would favour large law firms, lead to higher costs and would put barriers in place for those seeking access to justice.
Row with Tánaiste
The "one-stop shop" proposal also led to a row at a Cabinet meeting before Christmas between Mr Shatter and Tánaiste Éamon Gilmore when the Bill came up for discussion. The redrafted Bill is believed to contain some 70 pages of amendments, but it is not known how the multidisciplinary issue is dealt with.
The Bill has been included in the schedule of the last two Cabinet meetings, only to have been withdrawn. A Government source, speaking at 8pm yesterday, said that, as of that moment, the Bill was included on the agenda for today’s meeting.
Another Bill that has been around for some time is also due to be taken this morning. This is the Living Will Bill, first drafted by Fine Gael TD Dr Liam Twomey in 2010, when he was a senator in opposition.
The legislation has proposed that people be allowed to decide what medical care and interventions should be used at the end of their lives.
Terminal conditions
Dr Twomey, a Wexford-based family doctor, has argued that people who have terminal conditions should be allowed make living wills before they become too ill to make decisions about the medical treatments they may or may not want at the end of their lives.
Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn will also brief Cabinet colleagues this morning on the junior cycle student award (JCSA), which will replace the Junior Certificate progressively from 2017. The JCSA has divided opinion, but Mr Quinn will tell colleagues that it has won backing from both school managers and from parents.
He will also say that while the two main teachers' unions, the ASTI and the TUI, have indicated they may ballot for industrial action over this issue, they have not set a date and are still talking to his department.
The only subject that will be introduced as part of JCSA for first years from next September will be English, with the new science curriculum beginning for first-year students in September 2015. Other subjects will be introduced in successive years, with full reform being completed in 2022, not 2020 as originally envisaged.
