The Gazette 1990

GAZETTE

april

1990

conjunction with the Government and the Minister stated that he was encouraged at the response he had had from the Irish Insurance Federation in that regard. L AND REG I STRY DELAYS Mr. D. Spring, T.D., raised the issue of delays in the Land Registry on the Adjournment Debate in the Dáil on May 22, 1990 (398 Dáil Debates cols. 2546-2552). Mr. Spring stated that unfortunately there was still a major crisis in the Land Registry which had been caused solely by Government cutbacks and in particular by the Government's early retirement scheme. The consequences had been the virtual collapse of the services offered by the Land Registry with enormous delays in house and land transactions. In fact, the most recent information he could get was that the backlog of work now stood at 50,000 cases to be processed, the highest figure ever. The figure had risen by 10,000 over the past number of months, an increase of almost a quarter on the previous year. Mr. Spring stated that the average delay transferring a site was now two years. Occasionally there were mapping difficulties and he stated that this arose in parti- cular in rural Ireland. There was an additional delay of about 20 months because a site transfer should take place within a four month period given normal working practice. There were also 12,000 Land Commission vestings in arrears and it took approximately 11 years to complete any such vesting. The figures spoke for themselves. Mr. Spring said that urgent action was needed to be taken if we are ever to come to grips with these problems. Northern Ireland Agency Work Undertaken by Solicitors Donnelly, Neary & Donnelly

also rising. These factors bore on the level of insurance premia quoted to young drivers as well as on those quoted to more mature motorists. The Minister stated that one could not reasonably expect the price of motor insurance to reduce, or even to stablise, when the claims rate and the cost of claims was increasing. The international comparisons that were available suggest that this country has a very high accident rate and that the claims rate in Ireland is considerably above that in other European countries. The Minister said that unless and until the claims experience in Ireland mirrored that obtaining in other European countries there would be divergences between motor insurance premia in Ireland and those applying in other European countries. The Minister said that both he and his colleagues in Government would continue to do what they reasonably could to improve the environment for insurance. The Minister stated that he was, of course, aware t ha t, despite initiatives already taken, for example, the Courts Act, 1988, mo t or insurance premia had continued to rise. The ultimate decisions, however, rest w i th society itself. The Minister posed the question whether we were prepared to tolerate a high accident rate and abnormally generous compensa t i on for v i c t ims of accidents or whether we wanted to see a real reduction in the cost of motor insurance. The Minister proposed to stimulate public debate on the question of which alternative our society wished to adopt and also to suggest for discussion and implementation where possible initiatives which might assist in the attainment of the adopted alternative. Thus, for example, the Minister cited his recent references to the need to give consideration to the establishment of a tribunal for personal injury claims. The Minister's Department was ex- amining the feasibility of such a tribunal in conjunction with other Government Departments and the insurance industry. The Minister had recently suggested that the insurance industry itself should propose and support a road safety campaign in

Mr. Spring said that the Land Registry had been seeking com- puterisation for a number of years but to the best of his knowledge only a very rudimentary system had been provided. One of the most ludicrous problems in the Land Registry according to Mr. Spring was the fact that the Land Registry was more than capable of standing on its own feet. This year Mr. Spring said that the office is expected to contribute £10.3 million to the Exchequer through Land Registry fees and other sources of income. This represented a profit in the region of £1 million to the Exchequer. Mr. Spring also referred to a well established common practice that, in 90 per cent of the times that solicitors contact the Land Registry, they include in their letter to the client a request to make sure that they contact their local TD or public representative. Mr. Spring said that this contri- buted to the clogging up of work in the Land Registry by virtue of the number of phone calls and the correspondence involved. It was unfortunate that we had put ourselves into this position. Mr. Spring concluded by saying that he hoped that the Dail would not have to come back again in six or seven months time seeking an improve- ment in the service. He suggested to the Minister that the target for the year's end should be to reduce those dealings to 20,000 or 25,000 wh i ch wou ld be a we l come achievement. The Minister for Justice, Mr. Ray Burke, in reply stated that the economic upturn in recent years and the consequent increase in the number of property transactions in the State had placed considerable pressure on the Land Registry and Registry of Deeds. The Minister said that the total number of applications annually exceeded 250,000 and this had increased steadily since 1985. Dealing applications, which comprise the bulk of the Land Registry work increased by 18.7 per cent in 1989 compared with 1988 and the over- all volume of the main categories of work lodged in the Land Registry in 1989 showed an increase of 4 per cent when compared with 1988. The Minister stated that shortly after taking office he initiated a general review of the Land Registry

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