Dr. Gabriel Brennan:

As outlined by Mr. Barnhart, our initial thought was that the Law Society would not of itself have the type of funds to develop this type of system. During recent years we have met many providers of electronic services. The Law Reform Commission report was published in 2006 and we subsequently published our own vision in 2008. We sought out and met many providers and many others came knocking on our door declaring their interest. We did not find any other provider with the reputation, stature, experience and funds of Teranet Inc.

In terms of public procurement, the initial proposal was that Teranet Inc. and the Law Society would implement this system and only feed into the Land Registry in terms of electronic documentation. It was to be a collaborative arrangement between the Law Society, Teranet Inc., the lenders and the State, but this would be only one channel towards registration. From that perspective, no public procurement issues presented. Obviously, if the initial model changes and Government considers taking a more direct implementation approach to this, that perspective would change.