Mr. Niall Cussen:

The changes we are proposing to make relate to the taking in charge of conventional housing developments where there is shared public realm or what will become public realm. I am referring here to roads, streets, amenities and so on which form part of the normal streetscape with which we are all very familiar. We need to be extremely careful in the context of lumping in the multi-unit developments in which there are, in effect, private areas and treating them in the same way. There are issues in this regard which have been addressed in the Multi-Unit Developments Act. We are aware, through our work in respect of unfinished developments, etc., of particular problems that have arisen in respect of certain developments. It is necessary to follow a process of working through this with receivers, financial institutions and owners and the various arrangements under the Multi-Unit Developments Act, rather than to some extent importing the liabilities and legacy costs into local authorities. The latter already face a significant challenge in the context of managing unfinished housing developments.

The interface between the Multi-Unit Developments Act and the planning legislation is going to come into play as we go through the detail involved. However, these are two different issues in that we are discussing the regulation of private space as opposed to the management or maintenance of public space.