Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 22 Mar 1994

Vol. 440 No. 4

Written Answers. - Supply of Maps.

Edward Nealon

Question:

120 Mr. Nealon asked the Minister for Justice if her attention has been drawn to the delay in the issuing of maps to farmers in counties Sligo, Leitrim and in the rest of the country who require these maps before the end of March 1994, deadline for EU premia and payment purposes and to the fact that because of pressure in dealing with the demand for these maps the staff of the Land Registry are unable to deal with reasonable queries from the applicants who are worried about the situation; the steps, if any, she intends to take to ensure that the maps are made available on time and that queries are answered; and if she will make a statement on the matter.

Edward Nealon

Question:

129 Mr. Nealon asked the Minister for Justice when the Land Registry will supply a person (details supplied) in County Sligo with maps that he applied for in November 1993, as these are urgently required to be submitted in advance of an end of March deadline for EU premia and payments.

Edward Nealon

Question:

130 Mr. Nealon asked the Minister for Justice when the Land Registry will supply a person (details supplied) in County Sligo with the maps that he applied for in November 1993, as these are urgently required to be submitted in advance of an end of March deadline for EU premia and payments.

Minister for Justice (Mrs. Geoghegan-Quinn)

I am informed by the Registrar of Titles that the Land Registry is experiencing a huge influx of applications for copy file plan maps as a result of the area aid scheme. Since the beginning of this year, the level of intake is 66 per cent higher than for the corresponding period last year. All available staff in the Mapping Branch and Records Section of the Land Registry are working overtime in the evenings and on Saturdays in an effort to process applications as speedily as possible. There has also been a correspondingly high volume of inquiries relating to these applications, made mainly by telephone, with the result that the Land Registry staff have been spending a large amount of time dealing with telephone inquiries relating to applications instead of processing them. In turn this was increasing the period of delay in the issuing of the maps.

In an effort to issue as many copy file plans as possible, the Land Registry management have decided, as a short term measure, to suspend dealing with inquiries relating to copy file plan map applications and to concentrate on dealing with the actual applications in an effort to issue as many copy file plans maps as possible. Consequently, it is not possible at present to give an estimated date of completion for any particular application.

The fact that the Land Registry could not guarantee delivery by the 1994 area aid deadline of 31 March 1994 of any Land Registry maps ordered from them other than those required for normal land transactions was drawn to the notice of farmers on a number of occasions in recent months. Special arrangements were put in place by the Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry to facilitate the obtaining of maps by farmers from the Ordnance Survey. These arrangements included the fixing of reduced fees to be charged by the Ordnance Survey for maps ordered in connection with area aid applications. The arrangements were outlined to this House by the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Forestry in response to a Parliamentary Question on 7 December 1993 (Dail Debates Volume 436 columns 1585-1589). It would appear, however, that notwithstanding these special arrangements, very sizeable numbers of applications by farmers for copy folio maps required solely for area aid scheme applications have been submitted to the Land Registry.

However, I understand that the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Forestry announced yesterday that he has extended the closing date for receipt of simplified area aid application forms, from livestock farmers only, to Friday, 29 April 1994 from the original closing date of 31 March 1994. He said he was doing this because he understood that some farmers were still having difficulties in obtaining or completing the requisite maps. I believe the extension will facilitate the clearing of the backlog of applications in the Land Registry for copy file plan maps.