Ms Kath Cottier:

One of the issues is uncertainty over when this will end, because we did put out the levies. It is based on good, solid advice from all the professionals that we got involved in this, including the engineers and the fire consultant. When one goes out to tender for a contractor, that is when one knows what the exact cost will be. Even then, one does not necessarily know because of opening-up works. Building methods vary. So far, they have come within a price range in respect of which we have levied but there is still another two years left. Therefore, people are living with some uncertainty.

As a director of an owners' management company — there are other directors in the Gallery — I am aware that the issue of raising funds from the ownership is extremely difficult. Debt collection is very different for a social landlord than it is for an owners' management company, and it is very stressful. I am here today because I became a director of the owners' management company because the relationship between the directors and the membership was so broken. There is a responsibility to keep people safe. If one does not start the works, there is a risk that people will lose their homes. Where else will they go to? One is left with a dichotomy based on the question of what can be done for the best. There are those who do not want to pay and those who cannot pay. One goes through a process of getting enough support at an AGM to charge the levies. The problem with a non-profit-making entity, such as an owners' management company, is that it cannot decide to have less profit to cope with debt. All the owners pay for everything. Therefore, if there is debt, it is spread out among every owner, and this increases the levy charged to the owners who can afford to pay. There are issues in this regard. It really eats into the heart of directors.

The directors largely comprise a glorified residents' association. There are those who volunteer for the role who face addressing defects worth millions of euro and having to manage, with the help of managing agents, contracts that are very complex and hard to deal with. They must ask how they should proceed if they cannot get the money up front and how to separate the people who will not pay from those who cannot pay. One has to go through these processes. In Beacon South Quarter, we have used legal means to collect some of the debt. I suppose we are in the final stages in terms of how we progress in that regard because we are pretty sure that everybody who can pay is doing so. We have got some difficult decisions to make. That is not unique to Beacon South Quarter; it is across the board. If one does not pursue the debt, it goes to the other members. They are already struggling and will have taken out loans. That is the position. I am an institutional owner as a director but the vast majority of directors are owner-occupiers in apartments who are faced with really difficult circumstances.