Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 15 July 2014
567. Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Minister for Justice and Equality her views on whether the property price register is fit for purpose; the tests that are carried out to ensure its accuracy; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [30752/14]
Amharc ar fhreagra573. Deputy Eoghan Murphy asked the Minister for Justice and Equality if she is concerned regarding reports of errors in the property price register; if these errors are fraudulent or accidental; and the way the errors are monitored, detected and corrected. [30978/14]
Amharc ar fhreagra579. Deputy Stephen S. Donnelly asked the Minister for Justice and Equality the number of errors in price details recorded on the residential property price register that have been corrected in the past 12 months; the number of notifications of errors in price details received by the Property Services Regulatory Authority during that period; if she is concerned at the level of errors in price details recorded on the residential property price register; if the Property Services Regulatory Authority has carried out any investigations into the cause of errors; if there are any plans to improve systems at the PRSA to reduce the level of errors; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [31058/14]
Amharc ar fhreagraI propose to take Questions Nos. 567, 573 and 579 together.
The Residential Property Price Register, available at www.propertypriceregister.ie, is produced by the Property Services Regulatory Authority in accordance with the provisions of Section 86 of the Property Services (Regulation) Act 2011. Section 86 explicitly provides that the Register shall contain the address of the property, the price at which the property was sold and the date of sale of the property.
The Register contains information on residential properties purchased in Ireland since 1 January 2010, as declared to the Revenue Commissioners for stamp duty purposes. It contains the price paid for individual properties and contains details of all residential sales - both cash sales and sales with mortgages. These stamp duty declarations are primarily filed electronically by persons doing the conveyancing of the property on behalf of the purchaser and errors may occur when the declaration is being made. Any errors in the data are errors made by those making the declaration. In this context, it should be noted that there are a range of penalties which the Revenue Commissioners may impose in circumstances where incorrect stamp duty returns are made to them.
As stated, the information on which the Register is based, is provided to the Revenue Commissioners for stamp duty purposes. Consequently, only the Revenue Commissioners are in a position to verify and, where necessary, amend the data in question. The Property Services Regulatory Authority is not in a position to do so. I am advised that on being informed of any apparent inaccuracy in the data in the Register, the Authority immediately informs the Revenue Commissioners and requests that they take whatever remedial action, if any, they deem necessary. The Revenue Commissioners provide data to the Authority weekly in order to maintain the Register up to date and any amendments which they deem necessary are included in the weekly updates. The type of errors reported: include inaccurate prices - generally explained by the fact that prices of new properties in the Register are VAT-exempt; total price of block sales given rather than the individual unit prices; and inaccurate spelling of addresses.
The Property Services Regulatory Authority has indicated that currently there are a total of 107,579 residential properties on the Register and to date there have been more than 3.3 million visits to the Register by members of the public. The current level of traffic is over 30,000 visits every week. I understand that in the period January 2013 to June 2014 a total of 340 alleged errors were reported to the Authority by members of the public and all of these were referred to the Revenue Commissioners for investigation and any appropriate follow up. I am advised that some 83 of the records concerned have been subsequently amended by the Revenue Commissioners.
Given the number of entries on the Register, the high number of visits to the website by members of the public and the very low level of reported errors (0.3%), I am assured that the Register gives a full and accurate picture of residential property prices in Ireland since 1 January 2010.
