Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

On behalf of the Labour Party I welcome this Private Members' Bill which has been tabled on behalf of Fine Gael by Deputy O'Dowd to amend the Residential Tenancies Act. I welcome the Bill as a further opportunity to debate the need to end the practice whereby management companies are being used to perform work that should be done by local authorities in normal housing estates. It is also an opportunity to call for the abolition of management charges in housing estates, as distinct from apartment buildings.

The management charges levied on housing estates and apartment blocks are, in effect, the modern form of domestic rates. However, these rates are paid not to local authorities but to private management companies. They are paid, in the main, by first-time home buyers in new housing estates and new apartment developments for the same public services which used to be provided by local authorities — 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 an additional burden on families already overstretched with mortgage repayments and child care costs. Such charges can range from €500 to over €1,000 per annum. The amount is not controlled or regulated and it can be charged indefinitely.

The Labour Party previously addressed this issue in a Private Members' motion that was debated in the House on 22 and 23 November 2005. That motion sought to solve the growing problem of management charges and management companies in private housing development. That motion called on the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government to take three forms of action to address the management company problem, namely, to stop new management companies being formed and new management charges being levied, to regulate management companies and charges where they currently exist and to legislate to wind up management companies, end management charges and have the housing development taken in charge and maintained by local authorities.

Sadly, on that occasion the Government saw fit to table its own amended motion. That motion promised action on the issue of management charges but nothing has happened. In this evening's debate, the best the Minister can do is to plead for another nine months of further inactivity.

During the debate last November, the Minister told us the Law Reform Commission was engaging with this issue. We have received the same answer this evening. The only advance is that the Minister now tells us the Law Reform Commission is likely to publish a consultation paper — not even a report — this summer. We are a long way from the point at which the Law Reform Commission will produce a report and even further from the point where the Government will take action on it.

The Minister also told us last November that he had asked the Department to obtain a report from planning authorities on their policies for attaching conditions concerning management companies to planning conditions for residential development. We have heard nothing about this report since then. We have heard from the Minister this evening that a letter went from his Department informing local authorities of their responsibilities to take estates in charge but we do not appear to have had any information from the Minister. At least, he has not taken the opportunity to put on record the practice throughout local authorities with regard to the establishment of management companies.

Last November, the Minister also told us that local authorities could use section 180 of the Planning and Development Act, which allows residents in a housing estate to petition the local authority to have the estate taken in charge. He assured the House that was perfectly feasible and legal, and that it would resolve the problem. Within weeks of the Minister having told the House that was the case, Fingal County Council produced a report, on foot of a resolution proposed by my Labour Party colleagues on that council, which stated the provisions of section 180 do not apply to estates where a management company exists, as the land in question is in the ownership and control of such a company. The report went on to refer to the difficulties the local authority had in dealing with vesting orders as defined under the Planning Act 2000. Therefore, the measure the Minister claimed could be used by residents to provide relief was not workable.

In the same November debate, the Minister hinted that——

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