Pat Breen (Clare, Fine Gael)

I commend my colleagues, Deputies O'Dowd and McCormack, for tabling this Bill.

The Government's failure in recent years to protect home owners who opt, or are forced, to buy apartments following the explosion in house price inflation in recent years is shameful. The rise in apartment accommodation is partly driven by the fact the traditional house is outside the reach of many thousands of people. Apartments can offer advantages in terms of central locations and can often be an attractive option for single people or couples without children.

In every town and city, not least in my constituency of Clare, the rise of apartments as a form of private dwelling has been a phenomenon of the last decade in particular. This growth is welcome in most cases. Ennis, the chief town, has seen a huge growth in the provision of accommodation as have other towns such as Kilrush, Kilkee, Lahinch, Ennistymon, and Tulla. I recently drove through many new housing estates in our second largest town, Shannon, with a local councillor and was astonished to see the amount of houses being built. Almost every month, a housing estate goes up in Shannon. There is a shortage of new houses for young people in Shannon and pressure is on Clare County Council to zone more land to accommodate them. From speaking with builders I know young people queue up to buy houses because of the shortage of accommodation.

In valuing this growth, we must regulate it and this is what this Government has failed to do. The Residential Tenancies Bill is narrow in scope, in seeking to regulate the management of apartments, which now make up one in five of every dwelling built in Ireland and house approximately 210,000 people.

Most of these people, particularly if they are single, are mortgaged to the hilt and often find themselves at the mercy of unregulated management fees, to which my colleague Deputy McCormack referred in his contribution. Many purchasers fail to factor in properly the annual management fees to their mortgage costs. Fees of a few thousand a year essentially increase the monthly mortgage repayment by 20%, 30% or 40%.

Last night I looked up the websites of Dublin auctioneers. I was astonished to see the shocking cost of management fees on these properties. It must be reviewed and I am delighted the issue has been raised. Apartment owners can find themselves at the mercy of these fees and it is fair to say apartment dwellers have been left without proper State protection against these management companies and agents.

Builders or management companies often evade their responsibility to maintain the property, whether it is failing to clean stairwells, keep lifts operational, provide a proper refuse service or maintain the structure itself. When problems arise, all too quickly it becomes apparent that these management companies hold most of the good cards. By simply doing nothing, issues can drag on indefinitely, making life a misery for the owners of these apartments.

Fine Gael proposes this Bill to establish a code of practice for apartment management which would make up for the imbalance in regulation in this area. This imbalance is all too obvious when we compare ourselves with our EU partners who, by and large, have more experience in this area. By widening the role of the Private Residential Tenancies Board and allowing it to become the regulator in this area, apartment residents would be protected by a three-year set management fee after a complex has been built. They would also have the certainty that fees would not be fully payable until all services were provided. They could pay into a special fund to provide for major refurbishment of common areas as the need arises.

Essentially, this is consumer protection legislation which would also provide for full information for owners or occupiers of apartments who often find they must organise themselves collectively to engage with negligent management companies. Empowering the Private Residential Tenancies Board would enable us to provide such regulation as the imposition of a one-year probationary period so if apartment owners decide to change management company, they would not be locked into a multi-year contract as a condition of signing on the new company.

The Minister might acknowledge the failure of his Government over the past nine years in contributing to the badly planned sprawl that makes up much of the greater urban areas. If we are to go down the route of high density housing in our urban areas, we must tighten up the regulation in areas such as Dublin. I thank the House for providing me with the opportunity to deal with some aspects of the Bill. I would like more time to speak on it. I urge the Minister of State and the Government to support Fine Gael, this Bill and the provisions required to rectify this problem.

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