Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senator for raising this. I congratulate him on his re-election and on a very fine vote. I congratulate Senator Joe Conway as well and welcome him to the Seanad. I congratulate Senator Maria Byrne on her re-election and of course also congratulate the Cathaoirleach on his election to the Chair, which is a great honour. He has my best wishes for his term of office.

On the Commencement matter Senator Boyhan has raised, I will certainly relay his opening comments on his understandable preference to have a Minister or Minister of State from the Department here. Tailte Éireann is an independent government agency under the aegis of the Department of Housing. Local Government and Heritage, as the Senator knows. As he outlined, it provides a property registration system as well as a property valuation service and also national mapping and surveying infrastructure for the State. Under section 8(6) of the Tailte Éireann Act 2022, which the Senator was involved in the pre-legislative scrutiny of, Tailte Éireann is independent in the performance of its functions. As such, the Minister does not have a role in the operational matters relating to its function. However, it is important we see it carrying out its functions in a very efficient manner and serving well the purpose for which it was set up under law by the State and which it is funded by the State to serve as well.

The continued increase in applications received for registration by Tailte Éireann year on year and challenges in recruitment for some time now have unfortunately contributed to an accumulation of applications for registration. To address this, Tailte Éireann has embarked on a targeted recruitment campaign where a significant number of new staff have are now being onboarded who, when fully trained, will allow Tailte Éireann to reduce waiting times for registration services. Tailte Éireann has advised me improvements have been made to date in throughput times, especially for cases that do not require mapping. The Department is confident that as the full complement of staff is successfully onboarded it will be in a position to reduce waiting times across all application types.

Outside recruitment, every effort is being made by Tailte Éireann to reduce application processing times, including implementation of the efficiency driving measures. These include revised procedures for more efficient handling of the large volume of applications that are lodged that are not in order to proceed to registration, a targeted approach to reduce the age profile of applications pending registration, revised internal processes aimed at reducing the volume of applications on hand which are not in order to proceed and remain under query and also an organisation-wide focus on reducing processing times with business process improvements now implemented across the organisation. Tailte Éireann also continues to promote its digital services and uptake of e-registration services where paperless application types are available to legal practitioners and financial institutions which will help to reduce processing times for all service users. It is understood from Tailte Éireann that where an application is lodged fully in order for registration the application will be registered without any long delay. Applications involving transfer of registered land where no change to the registry map is required are in the main processed within 15 working days. Processing times for transfers that require a change to the map and those requiring first registration of property are improving. Lodging parties may of course contact Tailte Éireann about specific cases at its email address, info@tailte.ie. Further information on specific cases is available and obtainable by Oireachtas Members by contacting the dedicated email address in respect of the body, namely, oireachtas@tailte.ie.