Vol. 333 No. 6
andMr. Gallagher (Waterford) asked the Minister for Justice the steps he is taking to ensure that the vesting certificates being issued by the Land Registry to householders who avail themselves of the provisions to purchase the leasehold interest in their homes under the Landlord and Tenant Act, 1978 are acceptable to building societies.
365.
(Waterford) and Mr. De Rossa asked the Minister for Justice if he is aware that the provision in the Landlord and Tenant Act, 1978 which limits legal costs to £5 expires in July 1983 and if he will make an order to provide for the continuation of this provision for a further five years.
With the permission of the Ceann Comhairle, I propose to take Questions Nos. 364 and 365 together.
As a result of the working of the special purchase scheme provided by the Landlord and Tenant (Ground Rents) (No. 2) Act, 1978 some suggestions have been made for changes that might in some cases make for improvements in the scheme and I am having them examined. The matter raised in the first of the questions falls within this examination.
As regards the second question, an extension of the life of the purchase scheme could not be effected by ministerial order but would require amending legislation. While naturally some extension of its life cannot be ruled out, I do not think it is necessary to try to reach a conclusion on that point at this stage. I believe that it is in the interests of ground rent tenants to avail themselves of the scheme — which has been found to be an excellent one — without too much delay and I consider that it would be undesirable to say anything which might have the effect of encouraging them to keep on deferring their applications.
