Month: April 2011

On yesterday’s date, 13 April, Handel’s Messiah had its world premiere in Neal’s Music Hall on Fishamble Street in Dublin in 1742. Weather permitting, Our Lady’s Choral Society now annually perform Messiah on Fishamble Street on this date. For example, see this wonderful slide show on the Irish Times site of last year’s performance by Our Lady’s Choral Society and the National Sinfonia conducted by Proinnsías Ó Duinn, and there is far more coverage on the choir’s website. The Irish Times slides are accompanied by a soundtrack of their performance of the second half of the Hallelujah Chorus (from “and He shall reign”, rather than the better-known first half – their full recording of Messiah can be purchased here). Here are reports from the Irish Times of yesterday’s performance, and here is a wonderful flash-mob performance of the Hallelujah chorus in full, performed by the UCC Campus Chorus in Áras na Mac Léinn, UCC.

On the same date, the year after Messiah‘s premiere, Thomas Jefferson was born; in 1829, the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829 (10 Geo IV c.7) received Royal Assent; in 1900, Thomas Butts, inventor of scrabble, was born; in 1939, Seamus Heaney, Nobel Prize-winning poet, was born; and in 1963, Garry Kasparov, world chess champion turned politican, was born.

With the recent publication by the Press Council and the Office of the Press Ombudsman of their Annual Report 2010 (Report (pdf) | Press Release), it is an opportune time to consider whether the system of press self-regulation by those two bodies is working. I think that, overall, the answer must be yes. Within the remit afforded to the Ombudsman and Press Council, they are working very well indeed. The Ombudsman and Council are energetic in spreading the word about the speedy form of redress which they operate; the growing numbers of member-periodicals show that the industry has embraced the system; and the numbers of complaints show that an increasingly-aware public are taking advantage of it. Apart from the figures, 2010 saw two very important developments: the recogition of the Ombudsman and Council pursuant to the Defamation Act, 2009 (also here); and the extension of their remit to purely online publications.

As the Council’s new Chairman, Dáithí O’Ceallaigh, notes in his Introduction to the Report, the year covered by the Report began with the coming into force of the Defamation Act, 2009, section 44 and Schedule 2 of which allowed for the formal recognition of the Press Council, which duly followed in April:

This has been no mere formality, but a significant and public recognition of the degree to which these new structures, since their institution in 2007, have met the exacting requirements laid down for recognition in the Act, and have contributed to the climate of enhanced accountability and public service within which our press industry operates.

It is the final step in a long, but stately and carefully choegraphed, dance, which began with the publication of the Report of the Legal Advisory Group on Defamation in 2003, and proceeded via the establishment by the press of the Ombudsman and Council, through the publication of the Defamation Bill, 2006 and its enactment in 2009, to this recognition. Perhaps emboldened by it, the Ombudsman and Council are becoming more visible and more muscular.
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While Portugal and Iceland garner headlines for their international financial woes, Ireland is getting on with implementing the terms of last November’s EU IMF Programme of Financial Support for Ireland. For readers of this blog, one very important element of that programme requires the removal of restrictions to competition in sheltered sectors, such as the legal and medical professions. In particular, the Programme recommends the implementation of the 2005 Report (pdf) of the Legal Costs Working Group and of the Competition Authority‘s 2006 Reports on regulated professions, including their Report on the Legal Professions. Unsurprisingly, the Bar Council professed itself unhappy with the IMF proposals; but, in my view, the implementation of these recommendations can change the Irish legal system for the better.

In January of this year, the Public Accounts Committee published their Third Interim Report on the Procurement of Legal Services by Public Bodies (pdf). Starting from the premise that public bodies procure huge amounts of legal services every year, the Report concluded that the ability to get value for money is restricted by the practices of the legal profession. Indeed, the Committee was very concerned that the two Reports mentioned above had not been implemented:

The Committee notes the restrictive practices that are keeping legal fees artificially high. As public bodies are the largest procurer of legal services, it behoves the State to bring in reforms that will eliminate restrictive practices and bring in more competition in this market. The Competition Authority has provided a blueprint which will facilitate change and it is the Committee’s view that this should now be implemented. [p38]

In this respect, it recommended:

1. Competitive tendering should be made mandatory for the procurement of solicitors’ and barristers’ services by the State, so that a greater number of legal service providers have the opportunity to compete for work. This will lead to better service and better value for money for all State and public bodies. …

3. The taxation of costs system should be overhauled or replaced so that legal professionals and consumers of legal services have available to them clear guidance on current market rates for such services. …

6. Restrictive customs and practices in the two legal professions which lead to higher legal fees should be challenged and removed and should not tolerated any longer by the State. [p40]

It now looks as if all of these recommendations are about to be implemented. Writing in the Irish Times last Friday, Barry O’Halloran and Deaglán de Breádún report that the government intends to introduce new measures to shake up the legal and medical professions within three months:

Under the terms of the €67.5 billion EU-IMF bailout deal, the State is committed to boosting competition in sheltered sectors such as the legal profession, medicine and pharmacies by banning various restrictive practices. … The measures will include establishing an independent regulator for the legal profession and implementing recommendations made by the previous government’s legal costs working group and the Competition Authority.

From the point of view of legal education, the most important recommendation is the introduction of a Legal Services Commission, to act as an independent regulator for the legal professions, to set standards for the training of solicitors and barristers, and to approve and licence institutions that wish to provide such training. The EU IMF Programme requires that this should be completed by the end of the third quarter of this year. We may not meet that timetable, but I’m delighted that things are moving, and I look forward to the Government’s recommendations.

A companion to this earlier post:

Via GaS and shirt.woot!.