Government accused of failing to deliver better service
The Government has been accused of failing to deliver better Land Registry service.
Fine Gael TD Jim O'Keeffe criticized the Government for its dismal record on Land Registry services.
"It can now take up to 3 years to complete the registration of title to houses, sites or other property in some parts of the country, in spite of a Government decision last year to increase substantially and in some instances double Land Registry fees.
"In 2000, the Government creamed off a surplus of £12.7m in Land Registry fees while the backlog in the Land Registry increased from 86,000 to 142,000.
"This Government is clearly ripping off house purchasers. Fees paid to the Land
Registry are not retained by the Registry.
"A recent Dáil Question seeking information on each county showed that the delay in registering a dealing requiring mapping in Cork can run to a hundred and four weeks, in Carlow to one hundred and thirty weeks and in Clare to a hundred and sixty six weeks."
Last year the payment of fees totalled £34m whereas direct total expenditure in the Registry was only £17m. The Registry had a surplus of £12.7m during 2000 which was paid over to the Government.
"The Land Registry should have a much freer hand to get in the resources that
its needs and in particular the staff that it needs to deal with its work on a
businesslike basis. It is over a year since the Minister first told me he had
obtained sanction for an increase in staff from the Minister for Finance," Mr O'Keefe added.
