Victor Boyhan: Calls for urgent reform of seller's legal pack and Talta Aaron

Thank you. Firstly, I want to welcome the Minister and to thank him for coming to the House to deal with this. I know Minister, you are a highly qualified financial accountant and so therefore you'll be very keenly aware of business and financial transactions. So I think that's a great thing to bring to the table in relation to these matters. I'd like to of course welcome our former Senator Lorraine Higgins, representative of the IPAV and indeed to acknowledge the importance of the Incorporated Law Society of Ireland in the work they've done. And I've heard the contributions about the debate, but at the end of the day, this is Senator Aubrey McCarthy, he's a member of the Shannon Independent Group that I so happen to lead. He believes, and I firmly believe too, that you need to bring things forward and if nothing else from all of this debate, we're having a debate. And yes, there are concerns and they need to be asked. But let's get cut to the chase here. There are five simple asks in this motion. None of them should be a problem for the government. And, you know, I think we need to be clear on that. Because, you know, with all the jargon and with all this, I believe in clarity. Clarity of function, clarity of purpose, clarity of mind. So what's been asked in this motion? And this is my understanding. It's calling for three kiasks, five kiasks of the government to address the issue outlined in the report on the detailed scrutiny of the seller's legal pack, property bill 2021. Two, address the concerns about the conveyancy raised by the IPAV. And I want to acknowledge them and thank them for their advocacy and their professionalism, which I've always found them to be to the fore and very informative and attended many of their briefings. And I want to commend them as a leading agency and responsible for this area. And then the Law Society of Ireland in their submission. Three, liaise with the IPAV regarding how a new updated version of a seller's legal pack could be made possible. Now, I couldn't see that as a setback. That's not a setback. That's calling for positive engagement with the IPAV that are in this room here today. Of course, I support that. Four, bring forward an updated version of the bill. It's not saying this is a bill. This is a motion calling on the government to bring forward at any time. They're not saying today, tomorrow, next week, next month. It's a positive. They're asking you to bring forward. And finally, they're asking immediate bill or multiply bills, so multiple bills if necessary, if possible, to avail of the many benefits of the SLP proposal. That is simple. Let's keep it simple. No big ask. It doesn't need political manoeuvrings or boxing or being clever, one versus the other. I know you're in government. It's coalition government. There'll be challenges. I understand that. I can read that. I know what's going on. I just want to go on, then, in the next few minutes I have. The Law Society has consistently highlighted the antiquated, overly complicated and lengthy nature of the conveyancing system. It is crystal clear to solicitors that the current conveyancing system is long overdue systemic reform. And to reduce the delays, to reduce the costs, and reduce the stress to buyers and sellers, be it a commercial, be it residential, be it agricultural land, agricultural buildings, any property transactions. So that's clear. The conveyancing system involves 15 independent parties, ranging from lenders, estate agents, solicitors, local authorities, Talta Aaron, and don't get me going about them, revenue, Eska Aaron, valuers and surveyors. A delay by any one of these parties has a significant impact, knock-on impact on the parties, and can impact on a successful sale or otherwise. It is also important to note that many parts in the process, for example, the financial lenders and the local authorities, operate their own processes and protocols, which can result in a misalignment of the objectives and the issues there. So there are many multiple sets of challenges, and I think that's really, really important. Every local authority in the county has a different system. That's a problem. There's a different means of requesting the information. We have major issues with Talta Aaron, so there are major challenges there. I want to spend my remaining two minutes talking about Talta Aaron. I was involved in the pre-legs of scrutiny of Talta Aaron in 2022, the Talta Aaron Bill of 2022 that subsequently was enacted by these houses, and its objective was the Talta Aaron Act of 2022 would establish a state body called Talta Aaron through dissolving the Property Registration Authority, the Ordnance Survey of Ireland transferring their functions to Talta Aaron. The Act sought to transfer and did seek to transfer the functions of the Commission of Evaluation and the boundary surveyors of Talta Aaron. There are another complexity of issues and of problems that are impacting on the sale of property. Agricultural land in your own constituency, Minister, local authority property, state property, residential houses, commercial buildings. So there's a range of complexities in relation to selling, and we need to address them. We need to streamline them. But I do note in the legislation that it is open for a periodic critical review, and I'm calling for one here tonight. A periodic critical review of Talta Aaron, and I finish on this, thanks to Carol Nolan, an independent TD, in a parliamentary question last week, asked in the Dáil, she got these figures in relation to the arrears, the delays in Talta Aaron in processing. And I can again reiterate these figures that I said in the Chamber the other day. In 2024, there were 24,496 cases sitting on the desks of Talta Aaron. Can you imagine all the sellers there? Be they're looking for maps, be they're looking for first registration. We have a crisis in Talta Aaron. Talta Aaron is not fit for purpose, Minister. And I say it again, it is not fit for purpose. We know then in 2025, that there are 57,612 cases sitting on their desk, and they still need to be processed. And we know, in the last month, January of this year, we have a further 2,839 cases. So, the property business, or the selling of property is challenging, it's difficult, and it's complex. And my colleague here on my right, and I commend him for bringing this private members, is suggesting that we get started. It is not tying the hands of the legislature, it is not tying the hands of the government, it is not tying the hands of the Minister. It's saying, let's start a journey of engagement, and get our act together, and simplify these processes for all the parties involved. I commend this motion. Thank you.