Mr. Patrick Davitt:

Thank you, a Leas-Chathaoirleach. The time the process takes was mentioned earlier by somebody. We do not see time as an issue. At the end of the day, if the solicitors move on with digitalisation and they put in what is known as a data room in their offices, that will be a fantastic step forward. They can put all of their documentation there, which can be seen by anybody anywhere. Every time a question is asked, it can be put onto the system in the data room. The next person might not ask the same question but the answer will be there. Each question only has to be answered once, then put online and off we go. The questions are there and they are all answered.

Senator Gallagher asked about the system in the UK. When this Bill was first discussed among ourselves, we asked solicitors to draft a list of the requirements for the Bill. From our point of view, they went a bit overboard with the number of documents they wanted. We ran with it, however, because it was the same number of documents as is required for public auction sales. Then we spoke to Deputy MacSharry, who has a wealth of experience in the property business, and to a number of barristers before we drafted the Bill. It was drafted on the basis of the items that are required to make the process much simpler. It is about having a certain number of documents upfront. It has nothing to do with the time it takes to get those documents done when we are doing them upfront. The time it takes to put the documents together will eventually be blended in with the whole process. As agents, we have seen this previously with the building energy rating, BER, certification process. When it came in first, everybody thought it was the worst thing under the sun. Agents did not want to use it.

Nobody wanted to use it. Unfortunately, solicitors were landed with a situation where they had to do the sale without a BER and then they had to go and immediately get one. Eventually the provision was brought into law with a certain time period. Eventually that time period fed into the system and there was no problem with it. It was not until there was a law put behind the BER that this happened. This procedure that we are speaking about now is exactly the same. We all know, and solicitors and we know, that a certain amount of documents cause the most amount of problems. They are not documents about tax or septic tanks; they are serious documents about the deeds and planning for the property. I accept that planning differs from county council to country council, and the regions and times are different but at the same time we have to work with the system we have. We can all look together to get these changed if we all want to work together with the county councils and the Minister. At the end of the day, if it takes six, ten or whatever weeks it takes to get these documents then that is the amount of time that is blended in before a property is put on the market, and when a property is put on the market then at least we know it can be sold.

After we put the Bill together we set up a coalition of people who are involved in conveyancing in Northern Ireland, Scotland, England and Wales. We got some of the most educated people who have dealt with this matter for many years, including Professor Stewart Brymer, whom I mentioned earlier. Professor Brymer introduced in Scotland a property pack so people can survey properties. That is not what we are looking at in Ireland at the moment. First, we are looking at the information needed to sell the property. The English system uses both conveyancers and solicitors. However, the system in England slightly differs because a conveyancer does the conveyance on the property while the solicitor will do all parts of the sale. Scotland and Wales are similar. The English system had a home pack some time ago. Indeed, as part of another committee that I worked on in 2006, which was a special committee set up by the then Minister for justice, we visited the fair trade association in England about the pack. By the time we visited the pack had been withdrawn. The main reason for withdrawal was because the engineers were asked to compile an engineer's report on the property and certify it themselves, which they could not do because the engineer's certificate has to be "To whom it may concern", instead of being for one person. If somebody bought the property, the certificate would be for that person instead of indemnifying everybody. That was one of the reasons the pack was withdrawn. Agents have told us that if the government changes in England, the pack will possibly be introduced again. They have told us they would be very happy with the pack, as it was, because it got all of the information upfront and a pack would work very well. It is 17 years since that happened and things might have changed since then.

In Northern Ireland, there is an agreement or memorandum of understanding with solicitors, which is a slightly different system from what we have here.