Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

I wish to share time with Deputies Stagg and Broughan. I move:

That Dáil Éireann, considering the increased use of 'management companies' as an alternative to the public 'taking in charge' of housing developments and considering that these management companies impose a management charge on house-buyers for services which are normally provided by a public local authority, calls on the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government:

—to issue, under section 29 of the Planning and Development Act 2000, policy directives:

—requiring all planning authorities to insist that all new housing developments are designed, constructed and completed to 'taking in charge' standards; and

—specifying that planning permissions for the development of houses (as distinct from apartments) should not require or allow for the establishment of management companies;

—to issue guidelines to planning authorities specifying the limited circumstances (mainly apartment developments) where management companies may be permitted, and in respect of those permissions, to set down those services including where possible, all roads, public open spaces, public lighting and water and sewage services which should be completed to 'taking in charge' standards, and which should be taken in charge by the local authority;

—to introduce new legislation which will:

—regulate the operation of management companies;

—give consumer protection to homebuyers, including the regulation of management charges;

—re-inforce section 180 of the Planning and Development Act 2000, to the effect that a development which is or has been the subject of a 'management company' condition, may be taken in charge by a local authority where a majority of the qualified electors who own or occupy the houses in question, so consent; and

—provide for the winding-up of management companies.

Domestic rates are back. They were supposed to have been abolished after the 1977 general election but they are now, in reality, back with us again, not as they were but in a new form as management charges for housing estates and apartment blocks. They are no longer paid to local authorities but to private management companies. They are being paid for the same public services which used to be provided by local authorities. These include public lighting, management of open spaces, provision and maintenance of roads and, in some cases, the provision and maintenance of water and sewage services. They are paid in the main by first-time home buyers in new housing estates and new apartment developments. They are an additional financial burden on families already overstretched with mortgage repayments and child care costs. Some pay €500 per annum, some pay €1,000 per annum and some pay more. The amount is not controlled or regulated and it can be charged indefinitely. Management charges are a new stealth tax imposed on vulnerable house buyers, paid to private management companies for services which should be provided publicly.

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