Vol. 574 No. 5
232 Ms Shortall asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the number of vacancies that exist in the Land Registry Office; if his attention has been drawn to the substantial delays being experienced by members of the public in having their cases dealt with by this office; his plans to improve efficiency and service from the Land Registry Office; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27682/03]
The staffing level of the Land Registry and Registry of Deeds is 670. On 31 October 2003 there were 658.55 staff serving in the Land Registry and Registry of Deeds, leaving 11.45 vacancies. The Deputy will appreciate that it is not possible to maintain staffing levels at the absolute maximum at all times due to time lags that may inevitably arise between a vacancy arising and the filling of that vacancy. For an organisation of its size, a vacancy level of 11.45 staff or 1.7% of the establishment strength, represents the optimum at which staffing levels could be maintained, particularly given the turnover of staff in the current buoyant economic climate. Overtime is utilised by the registries as a mechan ism to overcome any problems associated with temporary vacancies arising from delays in filling outstanding vacancies.
The problem identified by the Deputy refers to shared ownership leases in the Dublin region and I am informed by the Registrar of Titles that there are 603 such cases pending at present. Of these, only 70 were lodged pre-2003. Of the 70 pre-2003 cases, almost 100% are under query and cannot be processed until a reply is received. It is the experience of the Land Registry that a high percentage of shared ownership lease cases are not in order when lodged. Resultant delays in completion are outside the control of the Land Registry.
It is a policy in the Dublin region of the Land Registry to expedite shared ownership leases when requested in writing by the local authority. This is to facilitate the situation where the tenant is buying out the local authority's interest in the property. Many of the shared ownership leases have been executed a number of years prior to lodgment in the Land Registry. Therefore, while the Land Registry deals with these cases as priority cases, the leases may be a few years old by the date they are presented for registration and this could also explain some of the delays being experienced by the tenants who are re-mortgaging.
In addition, a number of shared ownership leases are first registration cases which require an investigation of entitlement to registration of ownership by an examiner of titles and these cases can be complex and time consuming to process.
233 Cecilia Keaveney asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the position in relation to a land registry application for a person (details supplied) in County Donegal; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
I am informed by the Registrar of Titles that there are no applications pending on the folio number referred to by the Deputy at present. If the Deputy can provide me with any details about an application lodged in the Land Registry in relation to this folio, I will make further inquiries on her behalf.
