Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 27 November 2018
474. Deputy Catherine Murphy asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine further to Parliamentary Question No. 786 of 6 November 2018, the number of queries with the Irish Land Commission in the context of records held and requests for access to records; the longest period of time a query was open in the past five years to date; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [49107/18]
View answer475. Deputy Catherine Murphy asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine further to Parliamentary Question No. 786 of 6 November 2018, the average time it takes to close a query to the Irish Land Commission in which owners and purchasers of land and their personal or legal representatives are allowed access to and copies of relevant documents and or maps; if his attention has been drawn to the fact that long waiting times for settling queries has impacts on conveyancing; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [49108/18]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 474 and 475 together.
Requests for access to the records of the former Irish Land Commission are fully processed on average within 10 working days, provided that the requestor has supplied all the required documentation to firstly satisfy the criteria for allowing access to the records and secondly to correctly identify the relevant estate files.
It is the policy of the Records Branch of my Department not to release copy records until the required fees have been paid in full. This is generally the reason why a case may remain open beyond the average 10 day processing period.
While the number of cases on hand changes daily, there are currently 99 open cases, 71 of which have outstanding fees dating back as far as April 2018.
All open cases are kept under review and are closed if no response is received after a number of months.
My officials are aware of the impact of time delays when dealing with queries from the general public and the legal profession, and processes and procedures are in place to avoid any unnecessary delay.
