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GAZETTE
JULY/AUGUST 1990
LAND REGISTRY:
Memorandum of meeting which took
place at the Law Society on
Thursday, 31st May 1990
Attendance:
Ms. Catherine Treacy,
Registrar of Deeds and Titles.
Ms. Maeve Hayes, Chairman
of the Conveyancing
Committee.
Mr. Rory O'Donnell.
Mr. William Fallon.
Mr. Thomas D. Shaw.
The meeting was convened at
the request of the new Registrar of
Titles to consider the position in the
Land Registry and Registry of
Deeds, and to establish a good
working relationship between the
Law Society and both Registries.
Mr. Shaw gave a resume of the
position at the Law Society end
including the preparation of the
paper on the proposed reconstitu-
tion of the Land Registry as a Public
Corporation which had been pre-
pared in November 1988 and the
meetings and negotiations which
had taken place with the Depart-
ment of Justice since that date.
The Registrar indicated that she
was familiar with and had read the
paper.
Mr. Shaw reiterated that the Law
Society saw their interest with that
of the Registrar as being identical
namely of providing a cost effective
and efficient registration of title
service for the public of Ireland. The
Registrar agreed that this was her
intent as well.
The Registrar then carried out a
review of what had been happening
during her first month in office:
(1) She was in the process of
carrying out a review of all the
different sections of the Land
Registry.
( 2 ) She had seen the arrears in
each of the Departments and
was setting targets as to how
the arrears might be reduced.
( 3 ) She was carrying out a review
of the existing computer and
the services which it could
provide in the Land Registry.
( 4 ) She had given the go ahead to
a meeting, which had since
taken place, between senior
personnel in the Dublin Region
with the Dublin Solicitors Bar
Association through their
representatives Mr. David
Walley and Ms. Christine Scott
to review the existing situa-
tions.
What she was setting about
doing was having a strategic plan
for the future of the Land Registry
drawn up. In this she would take
into account the existing capacity
of the computer system in the Land
Registry, the progress which had
been made in relation to the Law
Link which had been envisaged,
and the future as she saw it for
registration of title in the country.
She confirmed that outside con-
sultants were to be involved in the
drawing up of this plan.
She was of the opinion that she
would be in a position to talk to the
Law Society representatives in the
Autumn and she indicated that she
welcomed any in-put that they had
to make from their expertise. Mr.
Shaw indicated that he would
request Mr. Frank Lanigan, who
had done very considerable
research into the Land Registry, to
contact her and to make available
any information that he had at his
hand and she said that she would
welcome this.
The meeting then considered the
position in relation to the existing
problems which were arising in the
Land Registry and the Registrar's
proposals for the alleviation of
these problems. Amongst the areas
discussed were as follows:
(1) Folios and File Plans:
Delays in the issuing of File
Plans were discussed. The
Registrar indicated that she
had carried out a review of this
area. An enormous number of
applications had to be rejected
or queried because of incorrect
information disclosed on the
application, most notably
name of registered owner
stated not compatible with
County and Folio Number stat-
ed. The Registrar's proposal
was to introduce a new type
application form. The name of
the registered owner would not
appear on this form. The folio
number and County on the
application form would be the
one issued. The Conveyancing
Commi t t ee were in total
agreement with this. As a
result of this and other
changes wh i ch she had
brought into effect, she hoped
that within a six to eight week
period a folio and file plan
would be available within one
week of being bespoken. This
time span applied to 80% of
the File Plan applications. In
the remaining 20% of cases
where the reconstruction of a
map was necessary before the
issue of a file plan could take
place, obviously it was harder
to give a definite time turnover.
The Committee totally wel-
comed this.
( 2 ) She had considered the
suggestion of the Society that
a float or direct debit system
be in place so as to enable
25% of dealings which were
rejected because of incorrect
fees to be dealt with within
the Registry without having
the total dealing rejected. This
aspect would form part of the
overall review by the consult-
ants mentioned above.
( 3 ) She was aware of the existing
requests for priority service for
commercial transactions or for
building estates. She saw
problems wi th creating a
priority service but indicated
that this was a matter which
could be looked at at a later
stage. In the meantime she
accepted the commercial
reality that the building estate
which was going to provide
500 houses should be
registered as soon as possible.
( 4) She was quite prepared to look
at an increase of the amount
for which title could be certi-
fied. Mr. Shaw pointed out
that 80% of the profession
were insured at this stage and
anybody insured wi th the
Solicitor's Mutual Defence
Fund had cover of £250,000
for each and every act of negli-
gence. This could be taken into
account on the same basis as
the Building Societies and
Banks who readily accepted
Solicitor's Certificates pro-
vided that they were so
insured. The Registrar pointed
out of course that this covered
Solicitor's errors only and that
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