We must distinguish between people who have to pay a contribution each year to the fund and somebody who has been the subject of a call on it. It has been my experience — and I am sure that of Deputy O'Donnell — that if somebody does something which involves the payment of money out of the fund, there is a 99 per cent chance that they will be struck off anyway so their contribution in the future does not arise.
The situation is not exactly analogous to that of insurance because we are talking here about different classes of solictors. The different class which the Law Society had in mind — as I understand it — was sole practitioners as against everybody else. It is not analogous to insurance where one can look at each individual case. Section 26 provides essentially for compulsory indemnity insurance for all solicitors. The insurance companies will load those in the same way as for people who take out car insurance.
I take Deputy O'Donnell's point that there is no public interest issue involved here. This was put into the legislation at the request of the Law Society. When it first did so there was a view in the society that it would be a good thing to do and that the majority of the profession supported different rates for different classes of solicitors — to put it bluntly, that a higher rate would be paid by sole practitioners. The society has now changed its mind because it has obviously taken soundings within the profession and feels that this would not have majority support. Therefore, the society does not envisage doing it at the moment because the support is not there and it wants us to withdraw it.
We are not just legislating for today. If I decide to withdraw this now it will mean that if the solicitors' profession changes its mind in the future and wants to prescribe different rates for different classes, it will not be able to do so. I do not envisage an amendment to the solicitors' Bill being brought through both Houses of the Oireachtas just to accommodate the Law Society in that respect.
It is simply an enabling provision. If the Law Society bears in mind that it will not be able to do this in future if it wants to — short of another solicitors' Bill to deal with the situation — as there is no public interest issue involved and if the society no longer wants it there, then I am happy to withdraw it on the basis that the people who requested it initially do not want it now.