Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am chairing the national co-ordination committee on unfinished housing developments to oversee implementation of the report of the advisory group on unfinished housing developments, together with the Government’s response to the recommendations. In March 2011, my Department launched the public safety initiative, PSI, which provided funding to address immediate public safety issues. The types of works that have been approved to date under the PSI include the fencing of unsecured and hazardous areas, capping of pipes, installation of street lighting and other works to secure sites. Under the PSI my Department has made allocations totalling €4.5 million to local authorities from the funding made available. To date, €3.26 million has been drawn down.

The public safety initiative provides funding only in instances where a developer has abandoned the development. In circumstances where the developer is merely inactive, responsibility for the maintenance and resolution of issues surrounding the development need to be addressed between the developer and the relevant stakeholders, and my Department has no remit in this regard. However, I understand that public lighting in Chambers Park has been restored.

Budget 2014 contains a special provision in the form of a targeted €10 million special resolution fund, SRF, to assist further in addressing the legacy of unfinished housing developments. The SRF has been proposed to encourage the resolution of the remaining tranche of unfinished developments identified in the national housing development survey of 2013 and, particularly, those developments unlikely to be resolved in the normal way through developer, owner or funder action because of the presence of specific financial barriers. It is envisaged that the SRF should be targeted at addressing remaining unfinished developments with residents living in them and, in particular, any developments that local authorities identified for the purposes of the local property tax waiver as being in a seriously problematic condition. My Department is currently evaluating SRF proposals from local authorities. I hope that the SRF will enable very substantial progress to be made in resolving as many of the remaining unfinished developments as possible.

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