An expert group on conveyancing and probate established by in December 2023 has told ministers that the conveyancing target could be met “in 2025” and the probate target could be met “within a year”.

According to the group’s report, conveyancing can currently take an average of 9.5 weeks to 20 weeks “depending on who is asked”, while probate typically takes about 18 weeks.

The expert group has made a number of recommendations, including “simple changes” in conveyancing law “to get rid of outdated requirements (e.g. for ‘wet signatures’ on paper documents)”.

Looking further ahead, it says eConveyancing “should be fully implemented in Ireland by end-2027 and scoping and implementation processes, led by the government, should be put in place now to achieve this”.

On probate, it recommends the recruitment of additional staff as well as a “further suite of measures to reduce errors/omissions in probate applications (including those done by solicitors)”.

The government has established an implementation group to proceed with the expert group’s recommendations.