Vol. 436 No. 3
78 Mr. J. O'Keeffe asked the Minister for Justice her views on whether a more efficient and cost effective system would emerge from the merger of the two branches of the legal profession; and whether she has any proposals in this regard.
This matter was considered by the Fair Trade Commission in its report into restrictive practices in the legal profession published in 1990. The commission was of the view that simply fusing the profession would not be a means of eliminating the present restrictive practices in the profession, although it might affect some of them, and a fused profession would not guarantee the delivery of more efficient and less costly legal services. The commission concluded that any harm caused, or contributed to, by the divided profession was certainly not so great as to warrant a recommendation by the commission that the two branches of the profession should be compulsorily fused.
However, the commission did not consider that it would be unfair or contrary to the common good if there were to be a single fused profession and stated that a fused profession might, without being a cause of concern, evolve gradually over time. It recommended that nothing should be done to frustrate such a development.
I have no proposals at present aimed at merging the two branches but that does not mean that I am accepting the policy on this issue must continue to be guided for the future by the views put forward by the commission some years ago.
