Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent)
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101. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the location in which title deeds are stored by the Property Registration Authority; if any title deeds held by the Property Registration Authority are stored outside of the State; if a person can receive and hold their original deeds; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35122/21]

Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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Title Deeds lodged in the Property Registration Authority (PRA) concerning registered lands are filed in the PRA’s Central Filing Repository in Santry, Dublin. This repository contains approximately 7 million completed applications (instruments). All of the records are original, physical, hard-copy, paper documents dating mainly from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Under the Registration of Deeds and Title Act 2006, and in accordance with the PRA's statutory obligations under the National Archives Act 1986, there is a legal requirement for instruments to be preserved permanently.

Title Deeds lodged in the PRA concerning unregistered lands are not filed in the PRA. The original Deeds are returned to the lodging party with a memorial/record of the Deeds retained in the Registry of Deeds, Henrietta Street, Dublin.

Title Deeds held by the PRA are not stored outside the State.

In relation to registered land, the original Deeds must be lodged in the PRA to effect registration on the National Land Register, and these original Deeds are then retained in its Central Filing Repository. As the original Deeds are retained by the PRA, a person cannot hold them. There is an exception in relation to original leases, which are returned to the lodging party once a counterpart lease is lodged. In these cases, a person can hold the original lease subject to any undertakings their legal representative may have with a mortgage lender.

For unregistered lands, all Title Deeds are returned to the lodging party following registration of the Deeds in the Registry of Deeds, and a person may hold them, again subject to any undertakings their legal representative may have with a mortgage lender.