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GAZETTE
but to assist the parties to achieve
service and if necessary to prove
that that service had taken place in
the specified circumstances.
(C) Did that form of service comply
with Order 65, rule 5?
Woolf L J considered that rather
than the Courts seeking by
adopting an extended interpreta-
tion of the rule to apply the existing
rule to service by fax, it was better
to leave to the Rules Committee the
task of re-drafting or otherwise
amending the rule as they had done
in the case of the Document
Exchange.
(D)
Was the quality of the
document
produced
by fax
acceptable?
Counsel argued that a document
produced by a fax machine was not
appropriately regarded as a docu-
ment because the majority of the
documents now produced by the
use of fax were not as durable as
documents printed on ordinary
paper. Counsel also relied on Order
66, rules 1 and 2 of the U.K.
Rules
of the Supreme Court
which dealt
with the quality and size of paper
and the printing of documents
"prepared by parties for use in the
Supreme Court". His Lordship
strongly suspected that those rules
were not intended to deal with the
quality of documents served on
other parties but the quality of
documents prepared for use in
court. Bearing in mind that in the
ordinary course of events copies of
the document were going to be
made by the recipient if it was a
document which was going to have
to be referred to in the proceedings,
his Lordship did not consider that
there was any substance in that
point.
Glidewell L J delivered a concurr-
ing judgment and Lloyd L J delivered
a judgment concurring in the result.
DELAYS IN LAND REG I S TRY
AND REG I S TRY OF DE EDS
Mr. Flanagan TD asked the Minister
for Justice in the Dail on February
27, 1990 that, having regard to the
content of the recently published
annual report of the Land Registry
and Registry of Deeds, if he would
accept that delays in both registries
were chronic and unacceptable;
and if the Minister would outline
positive proposals to address the
matter.
The Minister for Justice, Mr.
Burke, replied stating as a pre-
liminary matter that he must point
out that in accordance with normal
procedures the annual report in
question had not been published.
The Minister stated he had indi-
cated to the House in the course of
the debate on the Provate
Members' motion on 14 November
last, that he was concerned at the
level of delays in the service being
provided by the Land Registry and
Registry of Deeds. These delays
were due mainly to an increase in
the intake of work and a shortage
of staff. Indeed the Minister stated
that there had been an increase of
18.7 per cent in 1989 over 1988 in
dealing with applications which
comprise the bulk of Land Registry
work.
The Minister stated that shortly
after taking up office he initiated a
general review of the operation of
the registries and while he had not
completed that review he had taken
some steps to alleviate the situa-
' APRIL 1990
tion. He had obtained sanction for
an additional 35 staff for the Land
Registry in 1990. Eleven of these
had already been recruited and had
taken up duty. Every effort was
being made to have the remaining
staff recruited as quickly as pos-
sible. As a short term measure, the
Minister stated that some senior
staff had been diverted from other
work to deal with the kind of cases
where the worst delays were
occurring.
The Minister stated that he had
also made arrangements for the
filling of the post of Registrar of
Deeds and Titles and he had ob-
tained agreement from the Minister
for Finance for an appointment of
a number of staff at senior level.
In addition, the Minister stated
that he had provided for an increase
in computerisation expenditure of
the order of 32 per cent over 1989.
A programme of computerisation
of the abstracts in the Registry of
Deeds would start early this year
and the computerisation pro-
gramme in the Land Registry, which
was already well under way, would
be extended further.
The Minister concluded by
stating that the measures he had
outlined were initial steps which he
had taken in tackling the problem
of delays in the Land Registry and
Registry of Deeds. He was con-
tinuing to review the operation of
the registries and would take
whatever steps were necessary to
resolve the problems there.
COURT HEAR I NGS
Mr. Taylor T.D. asked the Minister
for Justice in the Dail on February
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