Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 26 Feb 2002

Vol. 549 No. 3

Written Answers. - Registration of Title.

Denis Naughten

Question:

362 Mr. Naughten asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the average waiting time for processing a Land Registry application on a county basis; the action he is taking to address this backlog; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6592/02]

Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform (Mr. O'Donoghue)

I can inform the Deputy that the waiting times for the processing of Land Registry dealings is as set out in the following tabular statement.

As the Deputy will appreciate the length of time taken to complete cases varies depending on a number of factors, including the complexity of the case, the completeness of the documentation forwarded by the solicitors, etc. The volume of business being transacted at any stage would also have a bearing on matters. The Deputy may also wish to note that any cases involving urgency are, in accordance with the customer service policy of the Land Registry, dealt with expeditiously.

The Deputy will be aware that a number of measures are being taken to deal with the level of business now being received by the Land Registry. The Deputy will particularly be aware that in 2000, in order to address the increasing intake of applications, I received sanction from my colleague, the Minister for Finance, to increase the staffing complement of the Land Registry by 77. Most of these appointments were made during 2001 and the training of the new staff is now beginning to pay dividends. I can also inform the Deputy that, during 2001, I received sanction for a further 19 temporary posts for the Land Registry. The recruitment of these additional staff is in progress.

I am informed that the Land Registry has been in the process of rolling out the integrated title registration information system, ITRIS. It is now operational in 12 counties representing approximately 70% of all dealings lodged. It will be extended to counties Tipperary, Meath and Westmeath in April and will be available for the entire country by the end of 2002. In the meantime in advance of the full roll out of ITRIS, in response to customer demand, the Land Registry's electronic access service, EAS, is now available in 20 counties and will be available to the other counties by May-June this year. Since its introduction, users of the EAS, from the convenience of their own premises, can conduct on-line searches of the electronically available indices and register; view and print computerised ownership records; discover the applications pending in the Land Registry against a particular registered property; make on-line applications for official copies of Land Registry records; and track the progress of applications through their lifecycle.

I am also informed that further enhancements are planned for this service which will become available from the second quarter of this year. A measure of the success of this flagship project to date can be gleaned from the usage of the service, which was initially launched in autumn 1999. A total of 123,000 business transactions were undertaken via this service during 2000. In 2001 this figure grew to almost 160,000. At the end of 2000 there were approximately 1,600 account holders. By April 2001 this had grown to 2,000 and it has now exceeded 3,100.

In September 2001 a major computerisation contract was signed which, when implemented, will enable customers of the Land Registry to access all folio and filed plan records and their related names indices over the Internet from the convenience of their own offices. The first images are expected to be available on-line by the middle of this year and it is planned that by the end of 2004 all the Land Registry's folio and filed plan records – about 6.4 million pages of paper records – will be available in electronic format. This is in addition to the more than 400,000 folios held in electronic format which are currently available.

The Land Registry's electronic access service – www.landregistry.ie – which provides access to its current electronic database of property ownership records, was one of the key flagship projects in the first e-government action plan and was the first such project to go live.

The statistics provided in the first column of the following tabular statement, dealings not requiring subdivision-creation of a new title, represent almost 70% of the total intake of cases by the Land Registry.

Every effort is being made by the management and staff of the Land Registry to address the problems which have developed over a period of time, mainly due to the unprecedented increase in the levels of business. As already outlined Land Registry management is implementing some proactive measures, along with the use of new technology, the launch of the e-commerce service and the computerised data capture of folios and maps, to help deal with the situation. These measures include improvements to workflow and the training and development of staff.

Waiting time (in weeks) for processing a Land Registry Dealing

County	Waiting time in weeks for dealings not requiring subdivision-creating of a new title	Waiting time in weeks for dealings requiring subdivision-creation of a new title
Carlow	14	160
Cavan	10	87
Clare	6	150
Cork	3	6*
Donegal	12	128
Dublin	2	75
Galway	10	190
Kerry	5	104
Kildare	4	14*
Kilkenny	14	160
Laois	16	156
Leitrim	12	128
Limerick	8	104
Longford	12	128
Louth	10	87
Mayo	7	194
Meath	20	130
Monaghan	10	87
Offaly	16	156
Roscommon	6	150
Sligo	7	194
Tipperary	16	156
Waterford	2	104
Westmeath	20	130
Wexford	14	160
Wicklow	4	14*

*The figures shown for Kildare-Wicklow and Cork represent the timeframe for any case lodged since the roll out of ITRIS. I have been informed by the Land Registry that pre-ITRIS cases in these areas are taking approximately 22 months to complete in Kildare and Wicklow and 14 months in Cork.