Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 303: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform when the digitisation of the County Mayo maps in the Property Registry Authority will be completed; if this matter will be expedited in view of the impact it is having on many dealing applications; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33692/08]

Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 304: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the number of dealing applications for Mayo that are held up due to the digitisation of the County Mayo maps within the Property Registry Authority. [33693/08]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 303 and 304 together.

In order to provide some background information I can inform the Deputy that the Digital Mapping Project in the Property Registration Authority (PRA) commenced in July 2005 and is due for completion in 2010. The system has been delivering considerable benefits to the entire country since the completion of Phase 1 in April 2006. On that date Phase 2 of the project (the digitisation of some 15 million individual registered boundaries) commenced on a county by county basis. Thirteen counties are now fully live on the system, with County Cavan due to be completed before the end of this month. A progress map and regular progress reports are published on the PRA website which was last updated on the 9 September, 2008. I understand that the project is on schedule and is being progressed in accordance with the timescales agreed with the contracting parties.

I am informed that digitisation of boundaries is currently underway in three additional counties — Limerick, Cork and Mayo and that the scheduling of counties is influenced by a range of factors the most significant of which is the date at which Ordnance Survey Ireland are in a position to deliver the latest version of their digitised base maps. The registered boundaries are then plotted and quality assured before being loaded on to the PRA's computerised system and declared live. The digitisation of boundaries in respect of County Mayo has just started (on 15 September, 2008) and is due for completion in May 2009. When the process is about to commence for each county a briefing session is organised for solicitors and other users in the area and this was done in respect of County Mayo some months ago. At that meeting the time schedules were outlined, demonstrations were given and practical information on how to best use the new system was provided.

The Deputy should note that approximately 65% of dealings lodged in respect of County Mayo with the PRA do not require to be mapped and are not affected by the Digital Mapping Project at all. I can also advise that at the end of September 2008, there were in the region of 9,000 applications for County Mayo awaiting mapping. Virtually all of these cases had been lodged before the commencement of the project for the county.

In addition to the improvements in customer service for map related applications and the new additional services that have been provided, the productivity gains from the project are very positive to date. The business case for the introduction of digital mapping projected a 40% increase in productivity. I understand that the project is still developing and, even though the staff of the PRA and its customers are at this point still becoming familiar with the new environment, this increase has already been achieved.