Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will answer the Chairman's questions in reverse order. It is hoped the emigration Bill will be published in the autumn. It has taken a long time to get it out of the system primarily because of the enormous obligations on the Attorney General's Office in the context of legislation which the troika required be given priority. The same drafters are dealing with particular measures on behalf of my Department. The first measure that had to be completed was the insolvency measure. The legal services Bill was delayed because of the focus and priority of the personal insolvency legislation. The Attorney General and staff at that office do extraordinary work in meeting the demands of all Departments. I am very conscious of that. Unfortunately, because of all of that and the need to meet the troika's timeframes, the emigration Bill was delayed. A substantial amount of work has been done on it by my Department and the Attorney General's office but we have not yet reached the point of having a full draft of the final Bill. We have moved away from publishing amendments to the third Bill in this area, published by the previous Government, and are publishing a new Bill incorporating all of the necessary changes required to be made because of reservations expressed by a number of Members, including myself, on Committee Stage of the previous Government's Bill. I hope the Bill will be published in the autumn, although I cannot guarantee that. I am conscious that my officials are dependent on the availability of those working on the Bill in the Attorney General's Office.

On the Property Registration Authority, I note the Chairman's remarks. I will try to find out the reason for the delays and communicate on the matter with him.

I do not think we should, in any service the State provides, take two years to address an issue. I will have my officials communicate with the PRA and I will look for a full detailed response as to where the delays occur, the reason for the delays and what might be done to address them.

The Courts Service capital building programme for the seven court projects covers Wexford, Mullingar, Waterford, Limerick, Cork, Letterkenny and Drogheda. These projects are proposed as public private partnership projects with finance being arranged through the National Development Finance Agency with the payments to be made over 20 to 25 years by the Courts Service. Since last July the Courts Service has been in discussions with the Department of Justice and Equality, the Office of Public Works and the National Development Finance Agency in order to progress the proposals. It is hoped that progress will be made. I can give the committee detailed information about each of the locations or I can write a note explaining the status of the projects.