Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry South, Independent)
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To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the reason for setting up a public register online to show the private transactions of persons in the sale of property and the amounts of money involved; the way this is in the best interest of the public; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43276/12]

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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The Residential Property Price Register has been published by the Property Services Regulatory Authority in accordance with the provisions of Section 86 of the Property Services (Regulation) Act 2011. The Register includes information on residential properties purchased in Ireland since 1 January 2010, as declared to the Revenue Commissioners for stamp duty purposes. The Register contains the price paid for individual properties and contains details of all residential sales. The particulars published in the Register include the price, the date of sale and the address (including house number) of each residential property sole in Ireland since January 2010.

The publication of the Residential Property Price Register fulfils a key Programme for Government commitment to improve the quality of information available on the Irish housing market by requiring that the selling price of all dwellings is recorded in a publicly available, national housing price database. In recent years, because of the steep downturn in the property market, it has been difficult to get accurate on property prices. This uncertainty has led to a lack of investor confidence and has contributed to stagnation in the property market. The publication of the Register should help to remove some of this uncertainty, restore some confidence in the property market and provide transparency in residential property sale prices.

The Register is not intended as a Property Price Index. The details made available on the register are limited to price, address and date of sale and do not include such details as property size or number of rooms. It is simply designed to provide, on an ongoing basis, accurate prices of residential properties purchased at a particular date.