Welcome to the Spring edition of the Matheson Horizon Tracker

Welcome to our Spring 2024 Horizon Tracker. We have waited until the recess for St. Patrick's Day to cover as much as possible of the Oireachtas activity for this session of the legislative programme. And, as usual, we also cover legislative and regulatory developments from the EU during the same time period, in addition to regulatory initiatives from significant regulators such as the Central Bank.

There continues to be a lot of activity in certain areas, most notably in relation to environmental matters broadly speaking where we have covered legislation ranging from the important Planning and Development Bill 2023 to new, or revived, EU initiatives in the area of conservation, biodiversity and nature restoration. Although the EU continues to be progressive in the area of climate change reversal we do identify political factors which might signify a change. Interestingly, in this context, our Corporate section documents the non-approval of the CS3D in recent Council votes. Employment law continues to develop, reflecting changes in the workplace arising from the COVID pandemic, and we have also considered two significant developments in case law concerning gig economy workers and discrimination law, the latter from the CJEU.

Our Commercial Litigation and Disputes Resolution practice area continues to monitor developments in the administration of justice which will take time to progress but which will ultimately materialise as significant changes, particularly in the area of third party funded litigation. Change seems to be more rapid and significant these days. A final strand in this theme of rapid change concerns significant moderation still underway in the Tax arena, under the influence of both the OECD and EU in addition to domestic changes, all described succinctly in this issue by our nationally leading Tax practice area.

If you have any questions about any of the content in our Matheson Horizon Tracker please contact any member of the PSL Faculty or your usual Matheson advisor.

Dr Irene Lynch Fannon, Head of Knowledge Management, Matheson LLP.