Terence Flanagan (Dublin North East, Fine Gael)

The problem is a legacy of the Fianna Fáil Government. Bad planning has scarred the country for the past ten years, with excessive rezoning of lands in many parts of the country. The evidence of this can be seen in towns and villages throughout rural Ireland.

The property bubble has burst with a bang. Most communities did not benefit from planning decisions. The real winners were the Government and developers, who used land speculation to enrich themselves and to fill their pockets. Much development was piecemeal and poorly put together with a lack of community facilities. Adamstown is an excellent example of good planning. However, it was built at the end of the Celtic tiger years and there is now a glut of unoccupied property there. This is disappointing.

Recent expert analysis in newspapers demonstrated how bad is the housing market. It is estimated that as many as 600 unfinished housing estates are scatted throughout the country, roughly equating to 300,000 empty properties. I know the Construction Industry Federation and academics in NUI Maynooth have differed as to the number of empty housing units in the country. There is certainly a large number of them, probably as many as 300,000. The vacant houses in these ghost estates are the legacy of Fianna Fáil and their bad planning policies.

What is the future for many of these empty and half-finished housing estates? In many cases the developer owes money and is not in a position to put things right. Bonds paid to local authorities were not sufficient. Who will pick up the tab and put things right for the home owners who live in these housing estates? Bonds were set at too low a level. A developer should never be allowed to half finish a housing estate and be given planning permission for a new one. It was not in a developer's interest to complete the current project before moving on to the next one because there is more money to be made in the next project than in the current one. Does the Bill provide that housing estates must be brought to completion before a developer can move on to the next project? Such provision is necessary to ensure that what happened in the past cannot happen again. Apart from the legislation dealing with rogue developers who have not adhered to the conditions attaching to the previous planning permission granted, is there provision in the Bill requiring that developers fully complete their current developments before they will be granted planning permission for their next developments?

Professor Kitchen, the director of the National Institute of Regional and Spatial Analysis, said that rural counties could be scarred for a decade. It could be even longer than that, depending on the future of ghost developments and whether a decision will be made to demolish some of these houses. It would be dreadful to have to do that but it might be a cheaper option in the long term as opposed to they being left empty, which leaves them open to vandalism, graffiti, young people hanging out in them and other problems. It would cost more long term to put right these housing estates as well as they being a scar on the countryside. The Minister might clarify that.

There is so much land rezoned in this country that it is estimated that in some areas there is land supply for housing for the next 30 years. That is incredible and it is an indictment of the Government and its policy that it allowed that to happen. Local authorities should refuse planning applications for housing in areas where there is an oversupply of housing. I do not mean to interfere in the housing market and the price of housing but we must be realistic and sensible about the future use of housing. We need to ensure the units that have been built are occupied before mass building takes place at any future date.

The Minister saw at first hand the result of the bad rezoning of land with the flooding of people's apartments and houses that were built on flood plains and on which there were no proper drainage. Local authority councillors in all parties who allowed such rezoning to take place must accept responsibility, but the decisions were made principally by planners in planning departments. Those planners who allowed this happen need to be brought to account. We need to ensure proper drainage systems are put in place to ensure no more flooding of houses occurs, particularly in estates that were badly built during the boom years. I am glad the Bill provides that the objective of a development will include the carrying out of a flood risk assessment in areas where there is a risk of flooding. The Minister is to be commended in that regard.

The Fine Gael Party has an issue with the Minister seeking to centralise planning decisions and thereby taking many of those decisions out of the hands of local councillors. The Bill appears to support a system of planning based on the national spatial strategy, which was not voted on by any councillor or TD. The population targets in it are inaccurate and unrealistic. The Minister might comment on that.

The Bill gives the Minister enormous powers. Deputy Hogan mentioned that a future Minister for the Environment might not use those powers in the way they should be used and that could be potentially dangerous. Therefore, we need to ensure that the necessary checks and balances are put in place. Under the Bill, powers will be taken from councillors and given to Civil Servants and to the Minister in the Custom House. That is a concern. Who will police the Minister and his officials to ensure there will be no abuse of these new powers? The Minister will be micromanaging many decisions on the development plan, which means the process will not be as democratic as it should be.

An objective of the national spatial strategy appears to be to stop the growth of Dublin, which is probably the wrong way to proceed. Under that strategy more of the population is to be scattered throughout the country. That is not good from the point of view of CO2 emissions. I am not in favour of the high rise, high density apartment building such as 10, 15 or 20 storey apartment complexes which Dublin City Council is seeking to develop. That is not conducive to sustainable living for families because of the lack of green space. Irish people in general are not used to apartment living and it does not suit them. Many apartment complexes have been a failure. It is incredible that there is still no regulation of property management companies. The Minister of State has an interest in this area and he is doing his best to progress through the Seanad the Multi-Unit Developments Bill. Progress on that Bill has been long awaited and the sooner it is introduced in this House the better. We consistently hear of scary stories about apartment management companies, agents and the level of extortion currently taking place with the increase in management company fees. Very often the owners are not even directors of the management company. Therefore, they have no real control as to how the money is being spent within the apartment complex. We have seen inflated figures and some of the contractors that management companies use through agents are not doing the work they are contracted to do. The position will be clearer and there will be a direct line of accountability when property management companies become regulated. There is nobody to whom an apartment owner can turn if he or she has a problem with a management company. All an apartment owner can do is contact a series of agencies such as the National Consumer Agency and the Director of Corporate Enforcement. A regulator is in place and that office has been open in Meath for the past three to four years. The people there have done considerable preparatory work but they need real power and real action. The sooner the management company Bill is brought forward the better.

The local area plan threshold is being increased to 5,000 people, which ignores the needs of small communities throughout Ireland and prioritises development to urban centres. We have a concern about that. That is not fair to small communities throughout Ireland who should have available to them local area plans. I am pleased that regional authorities will get new powers under this Bill. It will increase their accountability and transparency and they will have to engage in more public consultation on decisions that are made within the regional authority area. That is to be welcomed. There is often talk of a disconnect among councillors, elected officials and ordinary citizens. If this measure encourages citizens to become more involved in the process and to have more of a say through consultation it is welcome.

I take this opportunity to raise the pyrite issue, which is caused when moisture and rain comes in contact with the infill material in homes. This is a major issue for some homeowners. It is bad enough that some homeowners are in negative equity without they having to cope with cracks appearing in walls and floors. They are not impressed by the failure of the Government to address or to take seriously this issue. A case involving the developer in question and the quarry which provided the material is before the courts. The position, I understand, is that the material provided was probably substandard. Furthermore, proper regulations were not in place and proper checks were not made at each stage of the building process to ensure the correct material was being used in house construction. This is an ongoing problem which needs to be addressed. Light touch regulation, which was the order of the day in the banking industry, continues to apply in the building industry.

Unfortunately, as many as 20,000 homeowners have been affected by the use of pyrite in the construction of their homes. Deputy McEntee and I recently highlighted that some of this material may also have found its way into certain infrastructure projects, including the M3 in County Meath and Dublin Port tunnel. Given the safety implications, a full audit of Bay Lane quarry and all other quarries is required to ascertain whether the infill material in question was used in infrastructure projects. If such material has been used, we would have a timebomb. We should nip in the bud the current concerns in that regard.

The Canadian Government opted to bail out homeowners whose homes were not built to a sufficient standard. Ultimately, the Government here may have to help homeowners who find themselves in a similar position because developers, some of whom are surviving on a day-to-day basis, do not have the money to do so. Moreover, insurers such as Premier Insurance and Home Bond may not have sufficient funds in their accounts to pick up the tab and rectify the problems in many homes. This is major issue which must be taken more seriously.

While we must await the outcome of the court proceedings, it is not sufficient for the Government to argue that the matter is one for homeowners and their insurance companies. The State also has a liability arising from the lax standards which were applied and the absence of proper building regulations. The Minister must ensure more inspectors are available to require that quality materials are used in the building of apartments and homes and homeowners have full comfort in that respect.

The Fine Gael Party welcomes the publication of this long overdue legislation. While it provides for some good powers, we are concerned that many decisions will be made centrally in the Customs House by unelected officials and further powers will be removed from local authorities. These are not necessarily positive developments. My party's spokesperson on the environment, heritage and local government, Deputy Phil Hogan, has published a policy document, "New Politics", which proposes to reform the political process and to place more power in the hands of local councillors. While we want decisions to be made responsibly, we do not want powers to revert to the Customs House.

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