Willie Penrose (Westmeath, Labour)

I have no time for this exercise in privatisation or for everything existing for the benefit of a few at the expense of many. Many estates where they charge this money are publicly owned and all services are provided by the local authorities. Developers grab their share of services for which people have paid their taxes. This is the essence of the problem and should provoke a rebellion because people have had enough. It is unbelievable that another €20 per week is imposed on people who are at their wits end. If the road ever reaches Mullingar, the local authority will not allow it and will make it part of the conditions for planning permission.

The Government has the power to prevent it by directing managers and local authority planning offices not to let it happen. Deputy Stagg and others gave examples and those people know what they are talking about. They are not fools and we should heed them. We should tighten up consumer legislation to ensure the protection of people instead of pussyfooting around in case we step on the toes of the next builder already laughing all the way to the bank. I remember the former Minister for Finance, Mr. McCreevy, saying it was a great idea to reduce capital gains tax. Apart from an increased flow to the Exchequer, he said it would release land into the system. If capital gains tax was 20% rather than 40%, the reduction would feed into the price of a house. It was an excuse, not a reason. Developers threw a big rope around it as if it were a haystack and gathered that in as well. I call it hay cart economics. They got the seeds as well as the hay.

Our job is to ensure local authorities are provided with the necessary finance to ensure officials are in a position to take estates in charge. Some of the statistics colleagues have given are frightening. In my county we have prevented this from happening, perhaps because we in the Labour Party are very vociferous at local level. We stepped up to the brink to ensure that the privatisation of services was not railroaded in on top of us. Those of us who come from simple and humble beginnings do not forget where we come from and we know who pays the piper. It is the unfortunate working class people.

When I was younger I thought only apartments had common areas and management charges but developers have prospered and decided to spread their wings into ordinary housing estates. Deputy Joe Higgins referred to 2,000 houses. It is an open cheque book. When people pay €250,000 for a house, they should not have to pay any more. Their eyes are out on sticks working every hour of the day and community spirit has disappeared.

That spirit characterised country areas like Celbridge, which I was glad to hear continues to have a sense of community, but it is very difficult to travel long distances, leave a child in a crèche at 7 a.m. and pay child care charges, which are a huge burden and bigger than a mortgage in some cases, then return in the evening to collect the child, have something to eat and, drained, go to bed. There is no opportunity to engage with neighbours or build community solidarity where people help each other out because there is no time. People would like the time but that is the society we have created. All we are doing is rubbing more grease into the fat pigs.

Developers already make plenty of money. There should be no opt-out to the condition that enables a council to take a charge. That is a primary function of a local authority. We must give local authorities enough money to put in place enforcement officers. Does the Minister know his Department has had more restrictions imposed on it by the Department of Finance? Local authorities cannot take on staff or even replace people who leave.

Developers of large projects must finish a job in full compliance with every planning condition. If an ordinary person wants a house, they must remove the front hedge and put up a gate but developers can get away with doing whatever they like. There are good developers and I know a number in Mullingar, but some do not finish estates, leave people in the lurch and expect the local authority to step in. If the House had adopted the Planning and Development Bill, and I do not know why it did not, it would have provided a remedy for people in the form of direct access to the courts and would have allowed local authorities to refuse planning permission for those who do not finish estates to specific conditions and in accordance with terms imposed on them. The onus would then be on the developer to go to court to prove the local authority was wrong not to grant planning. In the Planning and Development Act 2000 it is the other way round and people must endure the travails of the system before going to the High Court. It is a nonsense when somebody has deliberately and flagrantly breached the terms of a planning permission. Local authorities should do the job they are meant to do, which is taking in charge estates on behalf of the residents. It is a public service which should not be ceded to private individuals in the form of privatisation.

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