Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

I agree that the authority's members should be people of considerable experience and wisdom. The new section 11(4) to be inserted in the Bill provides that the Minister must have regard to the desirability of their having knowledge or experience of conveyancing practice and procedure, business, finance, management, administration, consumer affairs or any other subject which would, in his or her opinion, be of assistance to the authority in performing its functions. I see no reason in principle why a local authority member should not be a person who would have, at the very least if not accidentally, some of these qualities but, as a minimum, experience of administration that would be of value to the authority. I do not want to commit myself to any particular course of action now. Having explained in section 11(4) and (5) the formula for the composition of the authority, I do not want to pre-empt myself or my successor with a binding policy commitment on the issue.

Senator Tuffy asked whether the staff were consulted on these matters. The staff were notified of this at the departmental council. The Senator will note they will remain public servants. As far as staff are concerned, apart from having a right to elect a member to the authority, there is nothing in the Bill that, on the face of it, is prejudicial to the staff's interests. Quite the reverse. This is part of a process that is revolutionising their working experience and conditions by bringing the registries from the early 18th century into the 21st century, in one leap in the case of the Registry of Deeds.

On the matter of fees and cost control, I appreciate Senator Tuffy's point that there were substantial fee increases in the registries, which were the subject of some controversy at the time. I ask the House to note that, first, the Land Registry must pay its overheads as well as its day-to-day outgoings. It must also pay its pensions and provide for its buildings. There will be an extensive building programme and Members, some or who are probably following the debate on their monitors, will be glad to know that Roscommon will receive a fair complement of the Land Registry's staff in the very near future. This is not just because I have an interest in Roscommon town but because it is a sensible thing to do.

Second, the building programme for the Land Registry is likely to be an expensive one. On top of this is the question of IT. The e-conveyancing proposal requires a fair amount of money to be spent on software and hardware to ensure the new system works. On the matter of fees, it is not my intention at this time to use the establishment of the authority, which does not in itself have any particular expense indications, as the occasion to unleash unjustified new fee increases. It is my intention that whatever resources are necessary to transform the registries in Ireland from their old-fashioned condition to their new modern condition, an ongoing process that has already achieved major significant modernisation, must be provided by revenues. Asking anybody other than the users of the service to pay for it would not be fair. Plenty of people queue at post offices to get their welfare entitlements, pensions and the like. To say to them that they must forego potential increases in their pensions so that I can invest in the Land Registry and so that those who make property transactions can get a quicker service would not be a fair allocation of resources.

Regarding registration, the Senators will note that the functions of the authority are set out in amendment No. 11, which inserts a new section 10 in the Bill. The second function, apart from managing the Registry of Deeds and the Land Registry, is to promote and extend the registration of ownership and land. A central task of the new authority is, therefore, to advance the registration process and to transform the pattern of property registration in Ireland from transaction registration, which is the basis of the Registry of Deeds, to land registry, which is the basis of the land registration system. In these circumstances, the function of the authority is to proactively advance the process of registration. The issue of compulsory registration on a county basis will be decided, as will other incentive measures to ensure land registration is resorted to on as widespread a basis as can be done with the resources available to the authority.

I emphasise that the authority is intended to bring about a major transformation in the way these two institutions are run and to ensure the highest possible standards of modernity are put in place. We are now advancing on a number of fronts towards a very different conveyancing situation, which the citizens of this country expect us to do. E-conveyancing is not yet within our grasp but it is coming close to being so.

One of the building blocks of the new regime in land law will be the publication of the text of a Bill that will completely transform the law of property in Ireland from its medieval feudal tenure origins to a modern republican — if I may use that term — land ownership system, completely sweeping away all of the old-fashioned concepts that apply to the law of real property as I studied it in King's Inns and replacing it with a modern, simplified statute based on common sense. I hope to undertake this publication in July in conjunction with the Law Reform Commission. This will be an exciting development. By the time the Bill goes to the other House, the heads of draft legislation to transform land ownership in Ireland in its entirety will already have been published.

I thank the registrar, who will become the chief executive under this legislation, her staff, the Law Reform Commission and Professor John Wylie, who is spearheading the transformation in conjunction with officials from my Department, for the tremendous work they are doing to effect radical law reform in under two years which should last for a century once it is put in place.