Seller's Legal Pack: Motion Seanad Éireann — 2026-01-27 ============================================================ Victor Boyhan (IND), Agricultural Panel I welcome the Minister of State and thank him for coming to the House to deal with this. I note that he is a highly qualified financial accountant so will be keenly aware of business and financial transactions, which is a great thing to bring to the table. On these matters, I welcome the former Senator, Lorraine Higgins, and representatives of the IPAV. Indeed, I acknowledge the importance of the work done by the Incorporated Law Society of Ireland. I have heard the contributions about the debate but Senator Aubrey McCarthy, who is a member of the Seanad's Independent Group, that I so happen to lead, believes, and I firmly believe too, that you need to bring things forward. If nothing else, from all of this debate, we are having a debate and, yes, there are concerns and they need to be asked but let us cut to the chase. There are five simple asks in this motion. None of them should be a problem for the Government, and we need to be clear on that. With all the jargon let us have clarity. I believe in clarity of function, clarity of purpose and clarity of mind. So it is my understanding that the motion has five key asks and calls on the Government to "address the issues outlined in the Report on Detailed Scrutiny of the Seller’s Legal Pack for Property Buyers Bill 2021" and "address the concerns about the conveyancing raised by the IPAV". I acknowledge and thank the IPAV for their advocacy and professionalism. I have always found them to be to the fore and very informative and have attended many of their briefings. I commend the IPAV as a leading agency and responsible for this area. The motion also mentions the concerns raised by "the Law Society of Ireland in their submissions". Next, the motion calls on the Government to "liaise with the IPAV regarding how a new updated version of the Seller’s Legal Pack could be made possible". I could not see that as a setback. That is not a setback. The provision calls for positive engagement with the IPAV, whose representatives are in this room here today. Of course I support that. Next, it proposes to "bring forward an updated version of the Bill". The provision does not say this is a Bill. This is a motion that calls on the Government to "bring forward" at any time. The motion does not stipulate today, tomorrow, next week or next month. The ask is a positive and the motion asks the Government to "bring forward". Finally, the motion asks to "introduce a Bill or multiple Bills" - so a multiple of Bills, if necessary, so that it is possible to avail of the many benefits of the SLP proposal. That is simple. Let us keep it simple. There is no big ask. It does not need political manoeuvrings or to box clever and one versus the other. I know that with a coalition Government there will be challenges. I understand that. I can read that. I know what is going on. In my remaining minutes, I note the Law Society has consistently highlighted the antiquated, overly complicated and the lengthy nature of the conveyancing system. It is crystal clear to solicitors that the current conveyancing system is long overdue systemic reform to reduce delays, costs and reduce stress on house buyers and sellers, be they commercial, residential, agricultural land, agricultural buildings or any property transactions. So that is clear. The conveyancing system involves 15 interdependent parties, ranging from lenders, estate agents, solicitors, local authorities, Tailte Éireann - and do not get me going about them - Revenue, Uisce Éireann, valuers and surveyors. This means a delay by any one of those parties has a significant knock-on impact on the parties, and can impact on a successful sale or otherwise. It is also important to note that many of the parties in the process, for example, financial lenders and local authorities, operate their own processes and protocols, which can result in misalignment of objectives and issues. It is important to note that there are many multiple sets of challenges. Every local authority in the county has a different system - and that is a problem - for requesting information. The Law Society has major issues with Tailte Éireann. There are major challenges and I want to spend my remaining two minutes talking about Tailte Éireann. I was involved in the pre-legislative scrutiny of the Tailte Éireann Bill 2022 that subsequently was enacted by these Houses. The objective of the Bill was that the Tailte Éireann Act 2022 would establish a State body called Tailte Éireann through the dissolution of the Property Registration Authority and Ordnance Survey Ireland, and provide for the transfer of their functions to Tailte Éireann. The Act sought to transfer, and did seek to transfer, the functions of the Commissioner of Valuation and the Boundary Surveyor to Tailte Éireann. They are another complexity of issues and problems that are impacting on the sale of property such as, for example, agricultural land in the constituency of the Minister of State, local authority property, State property, residential houses and commercial buildings. There is a range of complexities in relation to selling, which we need to address and streamline. I note that the legislation states that it is open for a periodic critical review and, tonight, I call for a period critical review of Tailte Éireann. I will finish by thanking Deputy Carol Nolan, an Independent Deputy, for asking a parliamentary question last week in the Dáil which resulted in the following figures on the arrears and delays in processing by Tailte Éireann. I will reiterate these figures, which I outlined in this Chamber the other day. In 2024, there were 24,496 cases sitting on the desks of Tailte Éireann. Can Members imagine all the sellers that involves, be they looking for maps or first registration? We have a crisis in Tailte Éireann. Tailte Éireann is not fit for purpose. I repeat, it is not fit for purpose. We know that in 2025, there were 57,612 cases sitting on the desks of Tailte Éireann and the applications still need to be processed. We know that within the last month, that is, January of this year, we have a further 2,839 cases. So the selling of property is challenging, difficult and complex. My colleague, who is sat on my right, and I commend him on bringing this Private Members' motion, is suggesting that we get started. The motion does not tie the hands of the Legislature, the Government or the Minister. It is saying, let us start a journey of engagement, get our act together and simplify these processes for all the parties involved. I commend this motion. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-01-27/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:33+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-01-27