Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 11 July 2023
490. Deputy Robert Troy asked the Minister for Justice further to Parliamentary Question No. 160 of 17 May 2023, what has been the impact of all of those actions in terms of the ultimate Troika request of reducing legal costs. [33829/23]
View answer491. Deputy Robert Troy asked the Minister for Justice what measures are in place to track legal costs in order to measure the effectiveness of the actions; and what are those measures saying about the effectiveness of the actions. [33830/23]
View answer492. Deputy Robert Troy asked the Minister for Justice what other measurements of legal costs in Ireland are available. [33831/23]
View answer493. Deputy Robert Troy asked the Minister for Justice with regard to the research by a company (details supplied) on models to control legal costs, commissioned by her Department when this report will be submitted to her Department; and the reason is it a year late. [33832/23]
View answer494. Deputy Robert Troy asked the Minister for Justice if she will commit to publishing a report (details supplied) report on receipt. [33833/23]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 490, 491, 492, 493 and 494 together.
I wish to advise the Deputy that the Government is committed to facilitating easier, speedier access to justice for businesses and individuals, part of which involves addressing the issue of costs associated with accessing the legal system.
The Report of the Review of the Administration of Civil Justice (known as the Peter Kelly Report) made over 90 recommendations, which, when implemented, will represent the most significant reform to civil law in the history of the State. One area on which the Kelly Review Group was not able to reach consensus was on the primary measures necessary to reduce legal costs in Ireland. Two options were put forward: the first a set of non-binding guidelines; the second a table of maximum costs, to be set by an independent committee.
Arising from the Review report, Minister McEntee published the Civil Justice Efficiencies and Reform Measures plan in May 2022. The plan sets out how we will achieve these ambitious reforms, with the goal of facilitating easier, cheaper and quicker access to civil justice. The plan identifies a number of measures which have the aim of reducing legal costs, recognising that no one singular action will have the effect of sufficiently addressing the issue on its own.
One action in the Plan is to undertake research on the two primary options put forward by the Review Group. To this end, my Department commissioned economic consultants to evaluate these two options, as well as identifying other potential options which may serve the same policy objective. This work uses a multi-criteria analysis methodology to assess the impact of the options proposed by the Review Group, as well as other options identified in the research. Underpinning this research has been a stakeholder survey. The work also incorporates existing data on legal costs arising from the National Claims Information Database, as well as from the Office of the Legal Costs Adjudicator
The report is expected to be finalised in the coming weeks. Following receipt of the report, its recommendations will be examined and will be subject to legal assessment before policy proposals will be developed. It is expected that the report will be published once consideration of its content is complete.
