Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)

I welcome the opportunity to debate this issue, about which I have been concerned for some time. I raised this matter on the Adjournment on 29 September and received a reply from the Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Noel Ahern, confirming that the practice of insisting on mandatory management companies as a planning condition for housing estates had no legal basis. When I tabled a priority question on 25 October, the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Roche, was categoric. My expectation was that the practice would be stopped for future developments as there was no legal basis for such conditions. I welcomed that and a survey of planning practice by the local authorities that followed.

My concerns are for those caught in the trap because they have signed contracts, for the taking in charge of estates and for legislation surrounding apartments.

If there is no legal basis for this and it can be stopped for new developments, how is it enforceable for those who are currently caught in the mandatory membership trap? My understanding is that contract law in this country states that one cannot contract outside of the law, so if there is no legal basis for this, how can it be enforced? The dominoes have begun to fall on this subject and I can foresee a situation where an unenforceable condition will produce problems, whereby estates are abandoned by developers and one neighbour pays management company fees while another is dragged through the courts for refusing to do so. I do not need to write the script. This is all avoidable but it requires a commitment by the Minister and the Government to tackle the retrospective issue. I urge the Minister to seek advice from the Attorney General on the matter because it needs to be tackled.

On the issue of taking estates in charge, section 180 of the Planning and Development Act 2000 allows electors in a housing estate to petition to have an estate taken in charge. However, when one reads the details, that can only occur after seven years and the clock only starts ticking after the five year planning permission period has run out. That is 12 years in total, so in reality, having an estate taken in charge takes much longer than five years. Furthermore, it can only occur if enforcement proceedings have not commenced. Does the Minister really expect local authorities to take an unfinished estate in charge if they can avoid doing so by issuing enforcement proceedings? I have seen enforcement proceedings commence and then disappear on countless occasions. Perhaps I have come to be cynical from watching this issue so closely.

I have a list from County Kildare which shows the total number of houses on the so-called "for taking in charge" list. The most recent list is for 2002, but the situation has worsened since then. There are 19,000 houses in Kildare on that list. I do not know what the figure is nationally. Some housing estates have been described by the council as "abandoned", some are over 30 years old while some are reasonably new. The construction industry has not covered itself in glory in this matter. Most estates do not have management companies, but even where they exist it is likely the estates will simply be added to the end of the "for taking in charge" list. Existing law falls down badly on the enforcement side. I tabled a parliamentary question seeking a survey of the situation nationally, which the Minister refused to conduct. Can that be reconsidered and some targets for progress on the matter put in place?

Everyone accepts that apartments require some element of management of shared spaces but this should not include areas outside of the sites, such as public roads, sewers or the water mains. Urgent legislation is needed in that area and we need a timeframe from the Government on when it will be initiated.

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