9 and a half weeks in and we have the final letter from our solicitor. We had a delay of about a week as we built an extension in 2010 (within the allowed measurements) but needed a 'Certificate of Exemption' before the solicitor could formally request the mortgage funds.
Final bill for solicitor is Eur950
Overall, I wouldn't hesitate to do it again. I put off doing it for a couple years because of the thoughts of the hassle involved but, in reality, it really wasn't too cumbersome. Just slow....