Legal Education Access Under the Directive
McCartan asked whether the directive would affect access to legal education and professional induction; the Minister said this was outside the tabled question’s scope and outlined the directive’s higher-education qualification criterion.
May I ask the Minister whether the adoption of the EC directive will have any impact on access to legal education by both non-nationals and nationals in this country? Will his Department, as a consequence of the directive, be seeking a greater say on the method of induction of students into the profession? Can the Minister advise us on what has been the response of the Law Society and the Bar Council to the proposals contained in the directive to date?
Comment on this
I think that supplementary goes outside the scope of the question as tabled by Deputy McCoy. I would like to point out to the House that unlike previous sectoral directives, this is a general directive which is meant to cover a wide range of professions. One of the main criteria for inclusion within the scope of the directive is that the fully qualified professional must have obtained a diploma awarded by a university, an institute of higher education or other establishment of equivalent level after completing a post-secondary course of at least three years duration. The Department of Education have co-ordinated Ireland's position on this directive and it has been handled at Council of Ministers meetings by the Minister of State with responsibility for Trade and Marketing.
The question of aptitude tests for lawyers or an examination procedure — as stated in the question — was also raised. In the directive an aptitude test is defined as a check on the professional knowledge of the applicant made by the competent authorities of the host member state with the aim of assessing the ability of the applicant to pursue a regulated profession in the member state. For all professions, other than that of lawyers, it is the migrant who will have the choice between either taking an aptitude test or a period of supervised practice to enable him to operate as a fully qualified professional in another member state. However, in the case of lawyers, and certain other professions whose practice requires precise knowledge of national law, it is now accepted that the host member state can make this choice. This is something that we, as well as other member states, were pressing for during the past two years and which has only recently been conceded by the Commission.