Welcome to the Spring 2024 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.
Explore the Legal and Regulatory Horizon
Matheson's expert teams have produced summaries of the legal and regulatory developments at a domestic and European level that will affect Irish businesses. Explore these key themes and trends by browsing the links below.
2024 is an important election year in many areas of the world and will form the backdrop to many of the developments in our Horizon Tracking discussions this year
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We look a number of topics including the New Green Lease Toolkit, Residential Zoned Land Tax and Commercial Rates.
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The Spring Legislative Programme 2024 brings little change except that the Companies (Corporate Governance, Enforcement and Regulatory Provisions) Bill has moved further up the chain and is now an item for priority drafting.
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In our update, we look at the latest legislative and regulatory developments in competition law.
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International developments continue to drive the Irish tax policy agenda and we examine this in the Spring edition.
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A number of significant macro themes continue to drive the pace of regulation in the investment funds space. Inflation, deglobalisation, technological innovation, demographic shifts, geopolitical conflict and the target of a net zero future have all contributed to the introduction of a wave of legislation and regulation at a rate many feel presents challenges to considered implementation.
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Key themes include Credit Servicing, EMIR and EU Green Bond Standard.
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2024 will first and foremost be a year of application and demonstration. 2023 saw a multitude of legislative and regulatory deadlines falling.
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This year is expected to see the continued implementation of a broad agenda for change across the commercial litigation landscape.
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At the end of 2023, the EU marked a milestone when the co-legislators reached preliminary agreement on the text of the Artificial Intelligence Act.