James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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Tailte Éireann is an independent Government agency under the aegis of my Department. Tailte Éireann provides a property registration system, property valuation service, and national mapping and surveying infrastructure for the State. Under Section 8(6) of the Tailte Éireann Act 2022, Tailte Éireann is independent in the performance of its functions.

Tailte Éireann has no role to play in the buying or selling of property and comes at the end of the conveyancing process to register the legal effect of the conveyance only. A recently published guide by the Law Society to avoid delays when selling property (www.lawsociety.ie/globalassets/documents/news/2024/speed-up-your-property-sale.pdf), provides guidance on the steps required to bring a property to market.

There are two separate systems for recording transactions in relation to property in Ireland.

1. The registration of deeds system operated by the Registry of Deeds
2. The registration of Title system operated by the Land Registry

The two systems are mutually exclusive in the sense that in a particular transaction relating to land the title will be either:

‘unregistered‘ – the title is not yet registered in the Land Registry and so the Registry of Deeds system applies, or

‘registered’ – the title has been registered in the Land Registry and so the Registry of Deeds system does not apply.

In regard to unregistered lands, the primary function of the Registry of Deeds system is to provide a system of priority by recording the existence of deeds affecting unregistered property. The Registry of Deeds system does not record ownership of property. It records the existence of Deeds relating to property transactions. Tailte Éireann can only carry out a search where the name of the previous owner of the property (the Grantor) and an approximate time period when the property was sold is provided.

A search in the Registry of Deeds will disclose only whether documents have been executed dealing with the land in question. To discover the effect of these documents the documents themselves, which are not retained by the Registry of Deeds, will have to be examined.

Information relating to searches in the Registry of Deeds is available on Tailte Éireann’s website: . Engaging the services of a practising solicitor, or law searcher, may be useful in identifying the owner of unregistered property to determine whether the property is available to purchase.

Where unregistered property is purchased for monetary value, it is compulsory to make an application for first registration of title on the Land Register. That obligation under registration of title law falls on the purchaser, under Section 24 of the Registration of Title Act, 1964, within six months of the purchase.

When a title is accepted for registration in the Land Registry, the original title documents are retained and permanently filed. A folio is opened in respect of the property and generally it is not necessary to refer to the original title documents again. A certified copy of this folio can be obtained with or without a copy of the map outlining the property. The title shown on the folio is guaranteed by the State which is bound to indemnify any person who suffers loss through a mistake made by the Land Registry. A purchaser can, therefore, accept the folio as evidence of title without having to read the relevant deeds.