Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)

The Planning and Development Act 2000 allows for the attachment of management company conditions to planning permissions for residential estates. This recognises the fact that management companies have been traditionally set up for the maintenance of apartment buildings and their attendant private grounds. In late 2005 my Department requested that a survey of planning authorities be carried out regarding their policy on attaching planning conditions relating to management companies in different types of residential estates. The responses to that survey indicate that the majority of planning authorities do not attach management company conditions to planning permissions for estates comprising houses only. A number do so in very specific circumstances, for example, where there is a shared facility between those houses such as a playground that will need ongoing management arrangements. It is not appropriate to attach planning conditions regarding management companies in the case of traditional housing estates——

See this speech in context