Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

At the outset, I welcome the fact that we are having a debate on this Bill. This is legislation that probably should have been passed a decade ago and it is quite extraordinary that, having been published last year, it is only being debated in the dying hours of this session of the Dáil. Indeed, it would not have been taken if not for the pleas from both Fine Gael and the Labour Party that we complete Second Stage tonight in the hope that we can take Committee Stage during the vacation.

I have heard the very eloquent speeches delivered by my colleague, Deputy Terence Flanagan, and by Deputies from the Labour Party, including Deputy Rabbitte, and I have heard nothing said from this side of the House with which I disagree. I wish to touch on one or two issues that have not yet been raised. If I repeat something to which the other Deputies have referred, I apologise but there are one or two issues that are worth addressing.

In the context of the subject under discussion, which essentially is the apartments built across this country, we should have had legislation put in place a long time ago delineating the rights of those who purchased the apartments, how management companies operating the apartments should function, how the apartment owners should control them and rules to ensure these companies were not controlled by developers in their interests and to the exclusion often of people who acquired apartments. Far too frequently, management fees have been used to complete work that the developer was required to complete but failed to complete under the planning permissions and conditions granted. That occurred in circumstances in which those who owned apartments could not control what was occurring and the developer essentially appointed his own agent to control the way in which the apartment management company was being run.

Like other speakers, I recognise there are a number of very good things in this Bill, but I think though that it requires some further development and I think there are areas that have not been addressed. In the context of dealing with the payment of the annual management charges, one of the huge difficulties for existing apartment owners is that within every major apartment block of which I am aware in my constituency, there always is a number of individuals who fail to pay their annual charges. Furthermore, depending on the efficiency of the management company or agent who has been appointed, these often run into substantial arrears that are to the detriment of other dwellers in that block and they can create a huge difficulty in the context both of the meeting of the real annual charges and expenditure surrounding the apartment but in the establishment of a sinking fund to ensure that future funds are available if difficulties arise simply in the general maintenance area. I regret that this Bill does not implement a particular recommendation that I think was made by the Law Reform Commission, which is that it should be possible to recoup management charges arrears through the small claims court. There should be no necessity to do this through the ordinary courts structure which will make it more long-drawn out and expensive.

There should be easy access to the Small Claims Court, an application that can be made without the necessity for lawyers to be recruited by management companies or agents appointed. In circumstances in which someone has not paid their annual charge it should be possible within three months of arrears accumulating to make that application. The legislation should be amended to deal with that.

In the context of apartments generally, we are regularly critical of developers. There have been some very well constructed apartments in the city and county of Dublin and there have been appallingly poorly constructed apartments which are little short of boxes that have been sold at exorbitant prices to people. Part of the blame for that lies at the feet of the Government for failing to ensure that our planning laws prevented the construction of the poor type of structures we have, but part of it rests with the local authorities. The local authorities have been far too ready to grant inappropriate planning permissions for the construction of apartments that provide no reasonable living space for young couples or families. They seem to believe that all apartments when rented, even when they are two-bedroom or three-bedroom apartments, will be inhabited by two adults who will never conceive children. I am familiar with myriad apartment blocks around the city and county of Dublin which are not children-friendly or family-friendly. Now because we have thousands of young people with young children trapped in negative equity in these apartments they have no way out. They have no alternative to move anywhere. That will create a huge problem if we do not address it. I appreciate it cannot be addressed in the Bill but it is a major problem.

The other problem is the ideological issue which we have had, particularly in the area administered by Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council in part of my constituency where planners seem to be of the belief ideologically that when one constructs apartments one does not provide adequate space for car parking. The ideological view was that everyone should travel by public transport even where public transport was grossly inadequate. I am aware of apartment blocks in my constituency in Sandyford where if one has a two-bedroom apartment one might have been sold one parking space or one parking space came with it. In circumstances where a couple or two individuals are living in an apartment who both have to work and have to go in completely different directions to work, who have to work just to pay the damn mortgage on the overpriced apartment that they have purchased, and they need cars to get to their work as there is no possibility of using public transport to get to work because it is so poor, there is not even basic car parking spaces. There are not car parking spaces for visitors or family to visit young couples who feel isolated.

I am talking about the Sandyford-Stepaside area in my constituency. It is a complete disgrace that we had a local authority so ideologically committed to public transport that it did not allow for the very basic facility of visitor car parking. If someone has a birthday party for a child and relations are coming from outside Dublin or other parts of Dublin there is nowhere to leave cars. There are double yellow lines everywhere. It is quite outrageous.

In the context of this particular Bill there are areas of difficulty that need to be addressed. One of the problems is where one has large numbers of vacant apartments and developers have got into difficulties and apartments are being sold now by way of fire sales, either by estate agents or by liquidators or receivers. There is a real difficulty with regard to the completion of outstanding works within the apartment complex. That is an issue that needs to be dealt with. It will become an even greater problem in the context of NAMA. When NAMA starts getting vesting orders for multi-unit blocks to be transferred to it and it gets involved in the sale of apartments and fire sales - NAMA is the body that may initially be involved in the organisation of the companies as provided for in this Bill to run the apartments - we need specific provisions relating to how NAMA will interact with certain functions in regard to the Bill when it takes over from developers. The Bill makes provision in particular with regard to developers but it does not deal with receivers, liquidators or NAMA where those individuals have taken possession of apartment blocks or they are involved in the sale.

The final point I wish to make is one other Members have raised but it really needs to be said. I just cannot understand why the Bill is confined to multi-unit developments with the definition given. Again, in my constituency and in other parts of Dublin there are developments which incorporate apartment blocks and individual houses, all being looked after by a management company. The units remain private. They are not taken in charge by the local authority and services have to be paid for in the context of cutting the grass and other matters. Under this Bill, those who own single unit houses within a complex are excluded and their situation is not addressed because the house is not a multi-unit. People own individual houses next door to apartments within the same development and subject to charges levied by a management company but they are not properly addressed in the Bill. This is something which should be considered and dealt with.

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