Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)
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The information requested by the Deputy is set out as follows:

I have been informed by the Registrar of Titles that this information was calculated on the following basis. The total number of dealings on hands in the Land Registry at 31 December 2004 was 163,678. Of these, 41,233 were the subject of queries and cannot be proceeded with until a satisfactory reply is received. The "live" arrear was therefore 122,445. The total number of cases completed during 2004 was 201,308. Therefore the overall national average waiting time in respect of the "live" arrear is 7.3 months.

I can further inform the Deputy that the length of time taken to complete cases varies depending on a number of factors, including the complexity of the case, investigation of title requirements, the completeness of the documentation presented, mapping requirements, the volume of business being transacted, the level of resources available at any particular time and the time at which the present computerised system was introduced in the Land Registry for each county. Where a case is urgent and this is brought to the attention of the Land Registry, in accordance with it's customer service policy, the matter is dealt with expeditiously.

Every effort is being made to process applications as quickly as possible. Decisions on applications are currently taking, on average, four to six weeks to process. This is due to the high volume of applications received.