Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)

Apartment owners need a new, simple, democratic and co-operative structure to manage their units. Happily, since Deputy Catherine Murphy and I raised the matter in the Dáil and turned it into a national issue, the local authorities have begun to put a block on this being included as a condition, which represents progress. However, some tens of thousands of householders have been caught in the management company scam in the intervening twilight years, a period of four to five years. They are tied up legally, with the deeds of their houses tied up into the scam, which should never have happened. The Government and local authorities have a key responsibility to those householders. The Government needs to provide the legal means whereby this completely unnecessary structure is taken off the back of those householders.

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