I welcome the Minister of State to the House and thank him for coming. I am raising an issue about Tailte Éireann. Tailte Éireann resulted from the merger of the Property Registration Authority, Valuation Office and Ordnance Survey Ireland. I was a member of the Oireachtas joint committee that scrutinised the legislation on this and teased out the issues. We warmly welcomed Tailte Éireann and its establishment. At that time, it promised many things. I had tabled the exact same Commencement matter previously. I look forward to a different response. I have the script and response. I would not mislead the Minister of State. That Commencement matter was on 26 February 2025. It relates to the need for the Minister of State from the Department to make a statement on the dealings and issues around the governance and the timely matter in which Tailte Éireann carries out or seeks to carry out its business and the problems that are associated with that.

The Incorporated Law Society of Ireland has run a number of commentaries on it. Solicitors up and down this country have concerns about Tailte Éireann. The Bar Council has concerns about it. I have ongoing experience with it, which I do not intend bringing in. My contribution is not motivated by my difficulties with Tailte Éireann. This situation relates to many farmers, house purchasers, sellers and people who wish to dispose of commercial property. We talk about dereliction, which the Minister of State know wells in his Ministry and his commitment to the restoration of our old towns and cities, croí cónaithe initiatives and all of that. Behind many of the derelict properties, we have issues about title, registration, probate or disputed ownership. This is where Tailte Éireann is critical. It was established to speed up these processes. We know that there are people going on for years waiting for a process. People have contacted Tailte Éireann and have been that told: "No, you cannot deal with us. You must go back to your solicitor."

I have a lot of documentation on this organisation. I spoke to a number of barristers and solicitors yesterday. I am saying advisedly that this organisation is simply not fit for purpose. We should carry out an audit of its functions. I do not come in here and knock things. I come in to highlight deficiencies and come up with positive suggestions. If a person applies for a passport today, it will be validated and then go on a tracker system. There is no such thing as an open tracker system. There is no open transparency and accountability about this organisation. We have built this monster called Tailte Éireann. Now it is suggested that it does not have resources. This is a closely aligned organisation with the Department. Does it have the resources? I do not want that excuse anymore. Does it have the manpower? Does it have the IT technologies, structures and software and hardware in place to manage it? This is an important arm of State. There are young people waiting who have lost deposits waiting for Tailte Éireann because the vendor has had a problem with Tailte Éireann.

Tailte Éireann is not fit for purpose as of today. I have substantial evidence to back that up. The citizens and solicitors who engage and make representations to Tailte Éireann on behalf of their clients should be able to track using a tracking system so that they can click in with their Tailte Éireann number to find out where they are in the line of the decision-making with the organisation. That is my ask. I have drafted a number of parliamentary questions. I am meeting a Deputy this week to talk about submitting them. I want to get the direct response from the Minister of State. Hopefully, we can put in place some mechanism of reform.

We have some former Ógra Fianna Fáil membership in the Visitors Gallery.

I thank Senator Boyhan for raising this issue. I will give him a detailed response. I hope there is some new material in there compared with what he has heard before, but in the response I think he will see that there has been an emphasis on recruitment and filling vacant posts, which I feel is acknowledgement from Tailte Éireann that it does not want to be a bottleneck in the process anymore and an acknowledgement that perhaps it has been in the past, but it is trying to smooth that out in terms of recruitment.

Tailte Éireann is an independent Government agency under the aegis of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. Tailte Éireann provides a property registration system, property valuation service and national mapping and surveying infrastructure for the State. Under section 8 of the Tailte Éireann Act 2022, Tailte Éireann is independent in the performance of its functions. As such, as Minister of State, I have no role in the operational matters relating to its functions.

In 2023, a request for a planned increase in the pay bill subhead of Tailte Éireann's vote was supported by the Department and subsequently granted in the Estimates for 2024. As part of Tailte Éireann's resourcing strategy, an accelerated recruitment programme was launched in early 2024 to address the high volume of vacancies and strengthen operational capacities in response to the increasing service demands. The programme introduced standardised recruitment processes across internal and external mobility routes to ensure consistent and efficient staffing. Since its launch in February 2024, the Tailte Éireann resourcing team has focused on filling 147 priority roles. In addition, a further 276 vacancies, including 135 within the registration function, have been filled across Tailte Éireann through a combination of new hires, promotion and mobility placements. The remaining 71 active Tailte Éireann vacancies, 11 of which relate to the registration function, are currently progressing through various stages of the recruitment cycle with a target to reduce overall vacancy levels across Tailte Éireann to below 3% by the end of 2025.

The continued increase in applications received for registration by Tailte Éireann year over year and challenges in recruitment for some time now have resulted in longer processing times for certain application types. Tailte Éireann has responded proactively to these challenges with a significant number of new staffing being onboarded and currently progressing through initial training. As a result, Tailte Éireann is now operating with increased staffing levels, which will support ongoing improvements in the delivery of registration services and contribute to the timely processing of applications. Tailte Éireann has advised me that improvements have been made to date in throughput times, particularly in relation to cases that do not require mapping. I am confident that as the full complement of staff are successfully onboarded, it will be in a position to reduce waiting terms across all application types.

Outside of recruitment, every effort is being made by Tailte Éireann to reduce application processing times, including implementation of the following efficiency driving measures: revised procedures for more efficient handling of the large volume of applications that are lodged that are not in order to proceed to registration; a targeted approach to reduce the age profile of applications pending registration; revised internal processes aimed at reducing the volume of applications on hand that are not in order to proceed and remain under query; and an organisation-wide focus on reducing processing times with business process improvements now implemented across the organisation. Tailte Éireann also continues to promote its digital services and uptake of e-registration services where paperless application types are available to legal practitioners and financial institutions, which helps to reduce processing times for all the service users.

It is understood from Tailte Éireann that where an application is lodged fully in order for registration, the application will be registered without any long delay. Applications involving transfer of registered land where no change in the registered map is required are in the main processed within 15 working days. Processing times for transfers that do require a change to the map and those requiring first registration of property are improving. There is a small bit more information there about how to access that information, but I would be interested to hear the Senator's views and thoughts on that detail.

I thank the Minister of State. I did tell him it was Wednesday 26 February. The cut-and-paste sentences in the beginning are exactly the same but forget about that. People have to do a job, and I understand that. The Minister of State has shined a light in a few places. All of that, I dare say spiel, but, respectfully, all that the Minister of State read out there is about resources. There are 71 vacancies in an organisation that is two years old. This is the story that is told to the solicitors who ring up. I sat in a solicitor's office last Friday and what people are told when they ring up is that they cannot do anything about that. It is a disgrace if Tailte Éireann is not functioning for our farmers, farm lands, farm buildings, commercial people, residential people and young people trying to get property. It needs to, and I am calling on the Minister of State to use his powers and have a discussion with his management team and find out what is going to Tailte Éireann.

I will be writing to the Committee of Public Accounts because I believe we need to examine Tailte Éireann and its practices. It is not fit for purpose. I do not want to get into personal cases, but I know people who have been waiting for two or three years. The Minister of State said it takes 14 or 15 days. If there is a query, cases are left sitting and are not sent back.

When people ring up, they are refused a conversation. They are told they must go through their solicitors. I want to say it loud and clear: this organisation is simply not fit for purpose. It is not doing its job in a professional or timely manner. It is leaving farmers, businesspeople and people seeking homes in distress and leaving many issues unresolved. I know the Minister of State will have to investigate all of that, but I ask him to commit to a root-and-branch review of the organisation. I will contact the members of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage, under whose remit this body falls, to ask to bring in representatives of Tailte Éireann as early in the new year as possible. There are big problems here that impact the Minister of State's constituents and mine.

I completely understand. The Senator is representing people who are being frustrated by this process and who are agitated by it. I totally understand. Fair play to the Senator for representing those people.

As I outlined, I cannot get into the weeds in terms of the day-to-day running of the organisation. If Tailte Éireann has requests for me or the Department that will help to improve efficiency, we are there for those. It is onboarding staff who are now in the training phase. I hope that when that onboarding and training are complete, we will see further efficiency.

I also referenced that the organisation is making a lot of operating changes. It is revising its procedures to ensure it does not become a bottleneck in the process. Work is ongoing. I ask for a bit of patience, although I acknowledge that the Senator raised the issue in February. Let us see how the onboarding and training go and give Tailte Éireann a chance to ensure it can work out a lot of those issues.