The processing of grant of probate is currently taking 17 to 20 weeks on average. I have been contacted on a regular basis, as I am sure many Members of the House have been, by constituents frustrated by the delays, especially when they need to sell a property or asset and the sale is being held up. Earlier this year, the property agent Lisney said that continuing delays in the Probate Office will affect the housing market this year. As probate sales account for at least one third of the supply in the housing market, understandably, buyers are reluctant to engage with properties that could be held up for months waiting for a grant of probate to issue. This adds further unnecessary pressure to the housing market. I understand some delays are a result of errors in documents being submitted. I ask the Minister to consider recruiting more staff to deal with the backlog of probate cases and that she would also consider reinstating the public counter in the Probate Office, which was closed during the Covid-19 pandemic and has not reopened since that time.

I appreciate the frustration. I have had many people come to me, particularly about the long delays and the implications for them personally, but also in terms of the overall market. The best way we can address this is by moving towards a digitalised system. We are not there yet. Work is under way through my Department, working with the Courts Service and with significant investment behind it, on the modernisation programme. Separately, the former Taoiseach, Deputy Leo Varadkar, just before Christmas last year established a committee to look at conveyancing as well as probate and to make sure we have representatives from all of the different sectors and those impacted by this. As to what further progress can be made, when we move to a more digital system, it will mean we can have automated validation of information so people do not have incorrect information that is potentially going through a paper trail that takes much longer, but also that people will be able to track and follow their application in a way they cannot at the moment. That work is under way. I appreciate it is frustrating for people but there is a huge amount of work involved.