Mr. Des McCabe:

I would like to comment from the point of view of the Apartment Owners' Network. The Apartment Owners' Network is a national body representing the views of owners and directors of owners' management companies, OMCs, and managed estates throughout the country. More than 400 individual owners and directors are in contact with us regularly. The foremost issue facing OMCs at the moment is latent defects, along with the related issues of sinking fund provisions and recovery of service charges. This has become the biggest issue facing OMCs. It could break some developments. The relationship between the directors of OMCs and the managing agents has reached a very poor level in some cases. As Mr. Prior says, people think this is a racket or a conspiracy. All of these defects are suddenly coming out of the woodwork and there is an industry around it. First, people are very angry, then they are suspicious. There is a sort of reluctant acceptance in the end, but then they face the stress of raising the money. For people on an average fixed income, paying an extra levy of €5,000 or €6,000 per year is a huge burden.