Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)

That is a good name. Six years later county councillors were calling for an inquiry into the mess that had been created. It was one huge unfinished housing estate. Roads were unsurfaced, some of the houses were defective and the open space was spoiled by heaps of rubble. What most angered the councillors at that time was that there seemed to be no way of taking effective action against Brennan and McGowan because the matter could not be sorted out. A famous gentleman who happened to be an assistant county manager, Mr. Redmond, whoever he was, admitted he had received substantial payments over the years from Mr. Brennan of the Brennan and McGowan company. A little corruption was creeping in and this has been uncovered by the tribunals. The relationship between politicians and builders is one of which we should be very careful. It is to be hoped that the corrupt nature of some relationships has diminished because it is not desired by anybody.

We hope that Shane McEntee of the well-known famous football family will be here in the House the week after next — not next week because the Government is taking another holiday. He told me about an estate in Enfield in County Meath and unfinished estates such as Moyfinrath and Rathdale which blight the lives of those who live there.

The issue of unfinished estates was raised by the previous Ombudsman, Mr. Kevin Murphy, who stated in 2000 that local authorities were reluctant to force developers to finish housing estates and to meet other conditions attaching to planning permission. The Ombudsman stated that county councils could penalise developers by making them forfeit the bond if they failed to finish an estate, but the bond was often for an amount which was far less than the cost of carrying out the work. He stated that to make developers comply with planning permission, county councils would have had to take them to court, and county councils were increasingly reluctant to do that. It is unfortunate that this lack of follow-through, determination and commitment has persisted up to the present day.

That famous company, Brennan and McGowan, and many more large building firms operated through a maze of front companies, each set up to carry out a specific development and forming a separate legal entity. The Gallagher Group, for instance, consisted of 50 companies when it went into receivership in 1982. It is an important point to be considered on Committee Stage that while company A may have obtained planning permission, there is a legal change for company B which may have no connection with company A. It is very important to get to grips with this issue and to follow through. I am not a legal person but the Minister will need to find a mechanism to deal with this issue because it is critically important. The Fine Gael Party welcomes this Bill and looks forward to the next Stage.

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