Vol. 520 No. 4
194 Mr. McGuinness asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the reason for the delay in registering a property in the name of persons (details supplied) in County Galway; the plans his Department has to deal with the backlog of applications in this area; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15990/00]
I am informed by the Registrar of Titles that this application refers to a transfer of part which was lodged on 18 February 1999. I understand that this application is dependent on a further application for registration as owners in respect of persons from whom the persons mentioned by the Deputy are purchasing the property in question. Queries issued in respect of that dealing on 4 May 2000 to the solicitors in question and to date no reply has been received. I am further informed that on receipt of a satisfactory response to these queries the matter will be dealt with as soon as possible.
In relation to the current level of applications being dealt with by the Land Registry, as the Deputy will be aware, due to the current buoyancy in the economy, the intake of applications continues to grow at an unprecedented level with each successive year setting new record levels.
The Deputy will be aware that, in order to address this problem, I have received sanction recently from my colleague, the Minister for Finance, to increase the staffing complement of the Land Registry by 77 and the resultant appointments are currently being made.
I assure the Deputy that every effort is being made by me and by the staff in the Land Registry and Registry of Deeds to address the problems which have developed over a period of time, mainly due to the unprecedented increase in the levels of business. The Land Registry management is also implementing some proactive measures to help deal with the situation. These include improvements to workflow, the training and development of staff, the use of new technology, the launch of an e-commerce service and the computerised data capture of folios and maps.
