An interim report by the Competition Authority on the professions is expected to be published without any recommendations in January.
A final report is not expected until the end of the year, a year later than originally planned, The Irish Times has learned.
Last April, the authority appointed economic consultants, Indecon International to conduct an examination of eight of the professions - doctors, dentists, optometrists, vets, architects, engineers, solicitors and barristers.
Its terms of reference were to examine methods and practices affecting competition in the provision of their services, with a view to identifying any potential or actual restrictions on competition, whether arising from legal provisions, professional rules or customs.
The process began with the circulation of questionnaires to the professions concerned by the Competition Authority, followed by questionnaires from Indecon. Where necessary, these were followed up with supplementary questionnaires.
The interim report from Indecon will document the research done, and the Competition Authority will then consider what to do with it.
It is likely that the professions will be broken up into three groups for the purpose of further analysis. The first group will be those professions whose professional practices are the least complex, like architects and optometrists. The second will be those moderately complex in structure and practice, like dentists and vets, and the third group will be the most complex and problematic, the lawyers' professions.
The interested parties will be contacted for their comments before the final reports are published.
It is likely that some of the issues identified through the first examinations of certain professions can be applied to all of them. For example, it is likely that the authority will examine whether the two functions of representation and regulation, at present carried out by the same body in a number of professions should be separated.
For example the Medical Council regulates the medical profession and the Irish Medical Organisation represents it, while the Bar Council and the Law Society combine both functions.