Vol. 432 No. 5
16 Mrs. T. Ahearn asked the Minister for Justice the plans, if any, she has to improve the service provided to the public by the Land Registry and the Registry of Deeds; the extent of the delay in dealing with land and property registration; and if she will make a statement on the matter.
As the Deputy will be aware, arrangements are already in hand to reconstitute the Land Registry of Deeds as a semi-State enterprise. This is being done to give the registries a commercial orientation and to enable them to provide the type of fast and efficient service which the public are entitled to expect. The Interim Board for the Registries, the Chairman and members of which have a wide range of business expertise, is assisting me in preparing for the reconstitution of the registries.
Additionally, a comprehensive programme for the introduction of the most up-to-date information technology and computerisation of a wide range of procedures at the registries is being implemented. This, combined with the tight management of scarce resources, is contributing to an improvment in the standard of services provided to the public. For example, in the case of dealings, the main business of the Land Registry, I am informed by the Registrar of Titles that, despite an unusually high level of intake of business, particularly in 1992, arrears of uncompleted dealings have been reduced by over 14 per cent during the period from the beginning of 1991 to the end of April this year. Output of completed dealings for 1992 was the highest ever recorded in the Land Registry. Overall, the average delay for processing applications in the Land Registry is currently five months. Where computerisation has been introduced and where it has been possible to implement limited arrears clearance projects the delay period has been reduced to two to three weeks for non-mapping cases and eight to 12 weeks for cases requiring subdivision and mapping procedures.
In the Registry of Deeds the delay for the combined processes of comparison and registration of deeds is currently three to four weeks.
