Europe to push reform of GPs and legal sector

The European Commission will maintain pressure on Ireland to reform its professional services even when Ireland's formal bailout programme finishes at the end of this week.

Speaking yesterday in Brussels, an EU official indicated that the commission remained concerned about the implementation of the proposed overhauls of what he called Ireland’s “sheltered professions” and would continue to monitor the issue.

“We would have liked to have seen faster movement on this issue,” the official said. The matter is now likely to feature in the European Commission’s first post-programme assessment of Ireland. This is scheduled for May when the commission typically unveils its country-specific recommendations for all EU member states.

Labour structures
Under the terms of the EU-International Monetary Fund rescue programme, Ireland committed to reform of a number of private-sector labour structures, including general practitioner pay and the legal services system.

While the official noted that Ireland had technically met the conditions of the programme by ensuring that the Legal Services Bill went to the Dáil, further progress on its enactment had been expected.

“It’s a disappointment not to see the Bill leaving the parliament. That is now for the Irish TDs and the Irish public to put the right pressure in the right place and to see improvement in the sector.”

The Government unveiled the Legal Services Regulation Bill in 2011, with the committee-stage Dáil debate beginning in March the following year. However, a number of amendments to the most contentious elements of the draft law have not yet been debated.

The reform package, which aims to reduce legal costs, has been criticised by representatives of the legal profession.

Economic inspection
Ireland's progress on this front is now likely to be assessed in the European Commission's annual economic inspection of each country.

As Ireland prepares to formally exit the bailout, it is becoming increasingly likely that Ireland’s post-programme surveillance will feed into these annual commission inspections that take place in all EU countries in preparation for the annual macro-economic review.

Earlier this week, at a meeting of euro zone finance ministers, European commissioner Olli Rehn said the commission would "try and align as best as possible" Ireland's post-programme surveillance with the regular reviews expected to take place under the new "two-pack" rules. He stressed, however, that Ireland would be subject to post-programme surveillance until 75 per cent of its bailout loans were repaid.