Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)

I welcome the presence of Ms Justice Catherine McGuinness and other members of the Law Reform Commission whom I thank for the work they carried out in the preparation of this Bill. I also thank the commission's staff.

The principal amendment in Part 1 is amendment No. 12, which provides in the new text of section 5(3) for the making of regulations during a five-year period following commencement to remove any difficulty encountered in bringing a provision of the Act into effect. This may be done only on condition, first, that any modification is in conformity with the purposes, principles and spirit of the Act and, second, that a draft of any such regulations shall be laid before both Houses of the Oireachtas and shall not be made until a resolution approving of the draft has been passed by each House.

The purpose of the amendments to Part 2, amendments Nos. 14 to 22, inclusive, is to improve the presentation and clarify the meaning of the relevant provisions.

Section 21 provides for the "over-reaching" of equitable interests in land, for example, where a person is part-owner by virtue of having contributed to the purchase or renovation of a house but is not registered as legal owner, in order that the purchaser obtains clean title. Arising from the discussions that have taken place, there were concerns that section 21 may go too far in over-reaching the equitable interests of a person who is in actual occupation of the land. While subsection (4) provides for registration of an equitable interest in the Land Registry or Registry of Deeds, thereby preventing any over-reaching of that interest, section 72 of the Registration of Title Act 1964 provides that actual occupation is a burden affecting the land regardless of whether it is registered. It is intended, therefore, to retain the provision in section 72 of the 1964 Act. This will mean that the equitable interest of a person in actual occupation will not be over-reached even if that interest has not been registered in the Land Registry or the Registry of Deeds. The existing practice whereby an intending purchaser must make inquiries as to who is in actual occupation of the land or to whom rent is paid will therefore be retained. Amendments Nos. 23 and 25, together with Amendment No. 141, achieve the desired result.

The amendments to Part 8, which deals with contracts and conveyances, relate to the root of title, formalities for deeds and words of limitation. The Bill as passed by the Seanad reduces the period in respect of which a purchaser may require proof of the root of title under the Vendor and Purchaser Act 1874 from 40 years to 20 years. The purpose of amendments Nos. 44, 45 and 46, which have the agreement of the Law Society, is to reduce that root of title period further to 15 years. These changes will help to simplify further and streamline conveyancing formalities. The amendments to the provisions on formalities for deeds are intended to clarify those provisions.

Amendments Nos. 47 and 49 provide that a deed executed under section 62 has effect as if it were a document executed under seal.

Section 65 will abolish words of limitation in the case of unregistered land. This is already the case for registered land under section 123 of the Registration of Title Act 1964. Amendment No. 50 makes it clear that a conveyance of unregistered land, with or without words of limitation, passes the grantor's entire estate or interest unless a contrary intention is apparent in the conveyance.

Amendments Nos. 51 and 52 arise from comments made by the conveyancing committee of the Law Society. The purpose of the amendments is to hive off subsections (5) to (7) of section 65 into a separate new section and to clarify and improve the presentation.

Regarding Part 11, the main amendment of substance is amendment No. 98. This is a technical amendment which proposes to remedy a shortcoming which has come to light in section 25 of the Registration of Title Act 1964.

The amendments to Schedule 1 provide for the amendment of the Courts (Supplemental Provisions) Act 1961 and further amendments to the Registration of Title Act 1964 and the Registration of Deeds and Title Act 2006.

The bulk of the amendments to Schedule 2 take account of provisions in the Statute Law Revision Act 2007, including the discovery of more obsolete statutes which can now be repealed.