Minister for Justice Michael McDowell has published a Bill which he says will bring the most radical reforms to land and conveyancing laws in the history of the State.
The Land and Conveyancing Law Reform Bill 2006 will ultimately lead to the electronic conveyancing of land, Mr McDowell said, rather that the current system which requires extensive documentation.
It was presented in the Seanad yesterday and debate on it will begin on January 20th.
"Its primary purpose is to update land and conveyancing law in order to meet the needs of the 21st century," Mr McDowell said yesterday.
The Bill will repeal some 150 pre-1922 statutes, some dating from the 13th century. "It is the outcome of an innovative joint law reform project - launched in late 2003 - between my department and the Law Reform Commission."
The Bill covers both land law, which deals with different types of ownership of land and the rights relating to each type, and conveyancing law, which is concerned with the transfer and disposal of land and rights relating to it, for example by sale, lease or mortgage.
Mr McDowell said the layers of statutory provisions, common law and equitable rights and remedies developed by the courts had resulted in "an unnecessarily complicated code, much of which is difficult to apply to modern conditions".
"The radical and far-reaching reforms set out in the Bill have the following objectives: updating the law to accommodate modern conditions; simplification of the law to make it more easily understood and accessible; simplification of the conveyancing process, particularly the procedures involved, in order to reduce delays and associated costs; promoting extension of the registration-of-title system in the Land Registry; and facilitating the introduction of econveyancing of land as soon as possible."
The Bill is part of a wider reform programme which aims ultimately to introduce the electronic conveyancing of land rather than the current "paper-driven transaction" as Mr McDowell described it.
The recently-enacted Registration of Deeds and Title Act 2006 is part of this programme. It established the Property Registration Authority to manage and control the Registry of Deeds and the Land Registry. It also updated the law relating to the registration of deeds and titles.
The reforms follow extensive work by the Law Reform Commission which produced a consultation paper, Reform and Modernisation of Land Law and Conveyancing Law, in October 2004. This was followed by a public consultation phase, including a conference on land and conveyancing law in 2004.
Another Law Reform Commission report, Reform and Modernisation of Land Law and Conveyancing Law, in July 2005 contained the text of a draft Land and Conveyancing Bill.
The commission then agreed to work on finalising the Bill published yesterday.