Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

On behalf of the Minister for Justice, I thank Deputy Pádraig O'Sullivan for raising this matter. I am happy to clarify the Department's responsibilities in regard to land and property legislation. The Deputy mentioned a number of organisations, including CAB, the money laundering unit in An Garda Síochána and the Revenue Commissioners, as well as local authorities. As he rightly points out, this is also an issue that can impact across various Departments. The Department of Justice works to make Ireland a safe, fair and inclusive place to live and work. As such, our responsibilities include overseeing services for the buying and selling of property, namely, conveyancing and probate legislation.

The Property Services Regulatory Authority, PSRA, is the independent statutory regulatory body tasked with responsibility for licensing and regulating property services providers, including auctioneers, estate agents, letting agents and property management agents, some of whom the Deputy referred to in his comments. Under the Property Services (Regulation) Act 2011, any business or individual that provides a property service, other than those who are subject to a similar licence or authentication scheme in another EU member state, must hold a valid licence from the PSRA. The requirement to obtain a licence applies to the sale, by whatever means, of land, including houses, apartments and other buildings, the auction of property other than land, including animals, art and antiques, the letting of land and accommodation, and property management services. It is an offence to provide a property service without a licence. The licensing of property services providers is intended to protect the interests of members of the public in their interaction with property services providers by ensuring high standards are maintained and delivered. For example, licensees must possess specified minimum qualifications, have available to them professional indemnity insurance and pay an annual contribution to the compensation fund.

As part of its independent statutory remit, the authority has powers to investigate complaints of improper conduct made against licensed property services providers and to commence, of its own volition, an investigation into suspected improper conduct. It also has the power to prosecute unlicensed property services providers. There are, therefore, key provisions in legislation in regard to complaints in this area. The Act does not provide that purchasers of property be tax compliant and-or that they be required to submit a tax clearance certificate as part of the purchase transaction. This is the essence of the point the Deputy raised. To reiterate, it is not a requirement to provide a tax compliance certificate to complete the purchase transaction. Typically, purchasers provide a booking deposit to an estate agent worth approximately 1% to 1.5% of the property sale price. The purchase of a house for €350,000, for instance, will require an approximate booking deposit of €5,000, which is held by the estate agent until the sale contract is signed. There is, however, no legal requirement for potential purchasers to forward a booking deposit to the agent. Instead, they may forward it to the vendor's solicitor.

The issue the Deputy raised relates to private third-party transactions involving the engagement of the services of a solicitor, matters for which the Minister for Justice has no responsibility. Tax clearance certificates and stamp duty, payable when property is bought, gifted or exchanged, are a matter for Revenue. Questions in respect of registered property and planning permission come under the remit of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and its agencies, namely, the Property Registration Authority, PRA, in respect of registered property, and An Bord Pleanála in respect of planning matters. As the Deputy stated, the matter encompasses a number of Departments. I confirm that a tax clearance certificate is not required to complete a purchase.

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