Batt O'Keeffe (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

It has been said that this debate on management companies is taking place in the context of tremendous increase in the construction of homes in recent years. The fact that apartment complex management has become the subject of such attention is partly a result of the huge increase in apartment development in recent years. Apartments accounted for 22% of residential units built in 2004. Almost 70% of residential units built in Dublin in 2004 were apartments.

This is part of the bigger story about Ireland's incredible housing boom. The achievements we have seen in the housing construction industry in the past decade or so are nothing short of phenomenal. We have had rates of house building not seen elsewhere in Europe. Over the past ten years nearly half a million new housing units have been built, which means that three out of every ten homes have been built within the last ten years. Almost 77,000 units were completed in 2004, an extraordinary figure, which is double the level achieved in 1997.

The Government has successfully promoted a range of measures to boost the overall supply of housing, to modernise and develop the private rented sector and provide a range of well targeted schemes to meet the needs of those who cannot afford accommodation in the private sector. As a result, we have seen record levels of housing output in recent years while social housing outputs have reached levels not seen for more than a generation.

A range of targeted schemes has been put in place to assist first-time buyers in recent years. These include the shared ownership scheme, the 1999 affordable housing scheme, affordable housing through Part V of the Planning and Development Acts 2000 to 2004 and the affordable housing initiative in Sustaining Progress. Record levels of funding are being allocated to local authorities for their housing programmes in 2005 and a major programme of regeneration and remedial works is currently under way.

Ireland has seen enormous growth in the development of apartment block living over the past ten years or so. Apartments have great advantages particularly in ensuring public transport and other public facilities in urban areas are viable. At the same time, the increase in the numbers of apartments force us to face different problems of ownership and co-operation between home owners.

It must be acknowledged that management companies have an important role in dealing with the ongoing maintenance of apartment blocks and other high density developments which have shared facilities. They are necessary to deal with management and maintenance of apartment complexes because of the extent of shared or communal elements involved. These range from corridors and lifts, to pipes and cables for services, the roof and structure of the building and outside areas such as car parks and open spaces. While in the case of a traditional house, the owner or occupant has to deal with maintenance, repair, insurance and so forth, these functions must also be carried out in apartment complexes. It is more complicated because of the number of individual owners and the fact they share many of the facilities. Therefore, the management company in an apartment complex must carry out many of the roles played by the individual owner in a traditional house.

The Planning and Development Act 2000 allows planning authorities to attach conditions to planning permissions, including conditions regarding the setting up of management companies. It is a matter for planning authorities to use these powers appropriately. Individual planning authorities must make their own judgment, based on local circumstances and policies, about how and to what extent to use them in particular cases. However, it should be noted that the existence of a management company does not relieve local authorities of their responsibilities in providing basic services such as water and waste water services. Nor does it relieve developers of their responsibilities to finish developments satisfactorily. If, as has been alleged, developers are trying to transfer the cost of finishing the services in estates to the purchasers, on top of the purchase price, that is unacceptable.

As the Minister said yesterday, the Planning and Development Act contains strong provisions regarding the completion of estates by developers. First, the general enforcement powers in relation to developments which are not completed in accordance with the terms of the permission have been strengthened and tightened. One instance is that planning authorities are now obliged to follow up genuine complaints about breaches of planning control within a given timeframe. Another is that planning authorities can refuse to grant planning permission, subject to the consent of the High Court, to any developer who has seriously failed to comply with a previous permission. Second, the Planning and Development Act gives a specific power to planning authorities to attach a condition to the permission requiring the developer to give adequate security, before commencing the development, to ensure the estate is properly finished in accordance with the terms of the planning permission.

The Planning and Development Act 2000 is also clear on the question of the taking in charge of estates. Section 180 provides that the planning authority must, if requested to do so by the developer or by the majority of the qualified electors who are owners or occupiers of the houses involved, initiate the procedures in section 11 of the Roads Act 1993 for declaring the roads to be public roads, for whose maintenance the local authority will then be responsible. With the roads goes the responsibility for water and waste water pipes, pavements and so on.

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