Vol. 499 No. 2
114 Mr. Creed asked the Minister for the Environment and Local Government if his attention has been drawn to the fact that on occasions it takes up to three months to have the transfer of ownership of a car registered which is causing an enormous inconvenience to the public; and the steps, if any, he will take to ensure that the registration of second hand cars is expedited. [2335/99]
My Department has involvement in the transfer of ownership of motor vehicles through the requirement to register such changes in the computerised national vehicle data base. Ownership change notifications fall into two categories: in the case of vehicles first registered on or after 1 January 1993, the seller is required to submit the notification of change directly to my Department. Unless there is some inaccuracy or other absent information on this notification the change is recorded within three working days and the new owner receives a vehicle licensing certificate in his or her name shortly afterwards; in the case of vehicles first registered prior to 1 January 1993 the notification of ownership change accompanied by the old style registration – log – book is initially submitted to the seller's local motor tax office who subsequently forward it to my Department for recording on the computer system. Some delays may occur with recording these transactions due primarily to the fact that the details of the change are not currently recorded where they are initially received.
I am pleased to inform the Deputy however, that my Department has been engaged in a major project to upgrade and modernise our computerised vehicle database. The initial phase of this new system came into operation in November 1998 at my Department's offices in Shannon, County Clare. This will be followed shortly by a new computer system in the Wexford motor tax office – pilot site – and subsequently by its installation in the remaining motor tax offices over a two year period. This network will facilitate the direct entry at local motor tax office level of vehicle licensing and change of ownership transactions and will avoid the existing time consuming task of transmitting such transactions to my Department for entry to the computer system.
Due to the arrangements associated with the changeover to the new computer system some delays have arisen in relation to the recording of some transactions including change of vehicle ownership notifications received from motor tax offices, i.e. in the case of vehicles registered prior to 1 January 1993. However, every effort is being made to ensure that the period during which this situation exists will be kept to the minimum possible.
