I recently announced details of a joint project being undertaken by this Department and the Law Reform Commission to radically reform and modernise land law and conveyancing law. The project will repeal many pre-1922 statutes, the earliest of which date back to the 13th century, and replace them, where necessary, with a modern law of property that will meet the needs of the 21st century. It is intended that the project will simplify the law, and improve its presentation, in order to make it easily understood and accessible for practitioners and the public alike; update the law to accommodate changing social, demographic and economic needs, for example, new forms of property ownership; and make the conveyancing of property easier and faster with a view to reducing costs and delays.
The functions of the registries are to provide a secure, reliable and effective legal system for registering property ownership and so enable property and related financial transactions to take place in confidence. While the Land Registry provides a state guaranteed title to property, the Registry of Deeds caters for property the title to which is not registered in the Land Registry. Both systems are mutually exclusive.
Both the Land Registry and the Registry of Deeds are undergoing a process of modernisation. The Government legislation programme which was published on 28 September 2004, makes provision for the publication of a Bill, entitled the Registration of Deeds and Title Bill, which will facilitate digital mapping and the registration of records on computer in the Land Registry and the Registry of Deeds.