Brian Hayes (Fine Gael)

We welcome this radical set of amendments, which will place a new authority on a statutory basis to deal with the registration of deeds and to subsume the Land Registry. More important, I welcome the Minister's statement that the new head of the authority will be answerable to the Houses of the Oireachtas. That will probably be more sensible than providing for on-line ministerial responsibility, given the number of transactions conducted by the Land Registry and the Registry of Deeds annually. It would be more useful to provide for the new head of the authority to be answerable for the performance and functioning of the new body so that proper management and control of this important service can be made accountable to the Oireachtas. It is also important that the body will be self-financing, which is good.

A number of categories of persons who should logically be members of the authority has been outlined in the legislation, including persons with a legal background and persons with a specific knowledge and interest in this area. Has the Minister considered providing a voice for local authorities on the board of the authority? I am a former local authority member and one of the great bugbears of local authority members is the time it takes to register land. Local authority members are vastly knowledgeable and experienced and this could well be exploited in making appointments to the new authority, given that local authorities frequently encounter the thin edge of the wedge when chasing registration of deeds and title. The Minister might consider this.

The objective of the exercise is to establish a customer-focused authority, which will deliver registration on a much more speedy basis than the Dickensian way in which it is delivered. If the new authority goes about its task as set out in the amendments, it will be a good day's work.