Paul McGarry SC has today been re-elected as the Chairman of the Council of The Bar of Ireland, the representative body for barristers in the Republic.
Mr McGarry said “I am grateful for the honour to continue as Chairman of The Bar of Ireland. I will dedicate my time and efforts in working with our members to build a better and stronger profession in what is an ever changing, ever challenging landscape for the profession. Not least among these challenges is the need to support our judiciary.
The judicial system in this State continues to be chronically underfunded. The fact that we have the lowest number of judges per capita in the OECD, and the fact that those judges have not been adequately resourced, whether through the provision of researchers or registrars or support staff, remains problematic.
What is more worrying is that some public representatives seem to think that it is better to spend money on a system for the appointment of people to an elaborate expensive quango simply to decide which judges should be recommended for appointment, instead of devoting more resources to the maintenance of high standards in the judiciary.
Despite all this, our judges continue to be held in very high regard. This is because their independence is unimpeachable. They in turn depend on the independence of practitioners and the manner in which judges and lawyers interact is essential part of our system.
“These are changing times for our profession. In the past year, the Legal Services Regulatory Authority has got up and running. Parts 1 & 2 of the Act of the same name came into operation last October. An interim CEO was appointed and the previous Minister for Justice stated that the Act would be fully in force during 2017. Given the wide range of systems and processes that have to be implemented by the LSRA for each of the provisions of the Act to be implemented it is unlikely that the Act will be fully operational during 2017. We have always said that there were elements of the legislation that were welcome. The new costs regime is long overdue, and we regret any further delays in getting that up and running. Similarly, the provisions on regulation and discipline contain welcome elements.On the other hand, there is huge uncertainty about the cost of all of this. The provisions of the Act relating to business structures, MDPs, partnerships and the like always seemed to us to make no sense in a market this size. We prepared submissions as part of the consultation process on these and other issues, and it seems from the initial LSRA reports that our arguments are getting some traction.”
We remain mindful of the considerable implications of Brexit for the profession and in recent months the Council has been engaged with government agencies and law firms about the potential opportunities for legal services in the wake of Brexit. We are glad to see that some of the ideas put forward will feature in attempts to attract global businesses to locate here. We recently hosted major conferences of the New York Bar and the Australian Bar Association, whose delegates were fulsome in their praise of our legal system and judiciary. In the year ahead we will continue to press ahead with this agenda. ”
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES
Paul McGarry SC was called to the Bar in 1996 and appointed a Senior Counsel in 2010. He is a graduate of University College Dublin, having obtained a Bachelor of Civil Law (BCL) in 1991 and LLM in European Law in 1992. He primarily practices in the area of public, commercial and European law.
Paul is originally from Belmullet in Co Mayo and currently lives in Dublin with his wife Olga and their two sons.
/ENDS