The IMF has released its European REO – it is available here.
I was struck by the amount of press coverage of the Cycle to Work scheme (C2W). The Irish Bicycle Business Association (IBBA, which seems to have no website) launched a report (which cannot be found online) praising the virtues of C2W.
The report in the Irish Times is brief. 90,000 bikes have been sold since the scheme was introduced. There is no estimate of how many bikes would have been sold without C2W. The IBBA spokesperson claimed that “cycling journeys have increased by more than 50 per cent”, which may or may not be due to C2W, and may not be true as Irish data on travel and transport are sparse. The Dublin Canal Crossing counts (h/t Ossian Smyth) surely do not support a 50% increase.
RTE, BusinessWorld and the Irish Examiner add that 50 new bicycle shops have been established, and 767 new jobs created. They note the increase in the number of bike-based charitable events. And they cite the example of Temple Street Children’s University Hospital, which apparently has kept excellent records of how its employees travel to work.
SiliconRepublic has the most extensive story. It cites a LSE study that shows the commuting by bike improves your health. Such studies are plagued by endogeneity: Are cycling people fit, or do fit people cycle? McNabola et al. (2008) show, for Dublin, that cyclists (who breathe differently) are particularly exposed to PM2.5 and VOC.
The Irish Independent interviewed a bike shop owner. He notes that, since C2W, people buy more expensive bikes and that the success of his business is due to C2W.
C2W is a subsidy on the purchase of a new bicycle. You would indeed expect that people would then buy more and more expensive bikes, which is good for bike shop owners. C2W was one of the first policies introduced by then-Minister Eamon Ryan, who once owned a bike shop (see here).
C2W is unrelated to the use of the bike. Even without the C2W, bicycles beat cars on cost. I find it hard to believe that C2W has induced many to cycle to work instead, but I am aware that there no data to support this.
The Department of Justice has published a press release indicating that the Legal Services Regulation Bill is to be published within the next few days, having received the approval of cabinet.
Regulatory reform in respect of legal services is a key commitment in theEU/IMF Programme for Financial Support for Ireland. A blueprint for reform, indicated in the financial support programme, was provided by the Competition Authority’s 2006 report on the legal professions. The detailed indications of the content of the Bill in the press release suggest the government has rejected some aspects of the Competition Authority report. Notably the proposal that a new regulator would oversee professional self-regulation (as occurs in England and Wales through the Legal Services Board established in 2009) appears to have given way to a new regulatory body which will have direct responsibility for oversight of the professions.
In addition to the Legal Services Regulatory Authority, two further new public bodies are to be established: an Office of the Legal Costs Adjudicator (who will take on regulatory functions over costs currently administered by the Taxing Master) and a Legal Professions Disciplinary Tribunal which will take over responsibility for addressing complaints of professional misconduct, currently administered by the Bar Council and the Law Society of Ireland.
The central rationale stated for the reforms is the promotion of a more competitive environment for provision of legal services, and this is reflected in proposals to allocate tasks concerning entry to the profession and the education of lawyers to the new Legal Services Regulatory Authority so as to liberalize certain aspects of professional education and end the situation under which the profession is both provider and regulator of legal education.
The establishment of three distinct agencies may be controversial and raises the question whether the variety of functions could be undertaken by a single agency. The press release indicates that the industry will be levied to pay for the new regulatory bodies (as occurs with a number of existing regulatory bodies such as the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland). Comments in the press suggest that the professions are concerned that the power of the minister to appoint members of the Legal Services Regulatory Authority will compromise the professional independence of lawyers. It is actually not unusual to find ministers exercising such powers of appointment (appointments to the Legal Services Board in England and Wales are made by a government minister, the Lord Chancellor). Clearly board members must be appointed by someone and ministers are accountable to parliament for their actions. Even the most independent of actors within the legal system, judges, are appointed by ministers (though this is not uncontroversial).
Certain of the more controversial aspects of potential reform, such as fusing the barristers’ and solicitors’ professions and introducing multi-disciplinary partnerships have been assigned to the new Regulatory Authority for research and consideration rather than be provided for directly in the Bill, according to the press release.
This new report from the ECB provides an analysis of the links between market structures and regulations in the distribution sector and the overall price level.
This looks like an interesting event.