On 21 September the Minister for Justice, Heather Humphreys TD,
announced that the Cabinet had approved the drafting of a new law
which would halt for now what would have been a significant change
to the law relating to easements, due to come into effect from 30
November 2021.
Unlike the prominent Northern politician who was quoted in the
Irish Examiner on 20 September as having said “when we are
able to make easements, we have to measure those easements”,
our Justice Minister was referring to the term in property law
which effects many properties, residential and business alike, in
one way or another. Take the straightforward example of a
semi-detached house in a modern housing estate. It is highly
likely that the deed to the house or site, transferring ownership
from the developer into the first house owner, also contained
rights for the site, which would benefit whoever owns the site now
or in the future. These would allow the owner of the site to tap
into and