Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The last time I checked, 19,000 houses in County Kildare had not been taken in charge. Some of the cases in housing estates went back 20 years. There is an issue, on which I hope we can all be at one. There are issues relating to bonds and bonds expiring. Bonds have a seven year duration and are not in perpetuity. When a local authority can take an estate in charge, it will take in charge a liability when developers are still involved. We need to strip out the offenders and reward good behaviour in the kind of legislative provisions that are being put in place.

I welcome the fact that the Minister will be open to some of the proposed changes at a pre-legislative stage in the planning (No. 2) Bill because it is critically important that we are not still talking about this in 20 years' time. I will not be here in 20 years' time. This does not involve just the recent crash; there are legacy issues that go back to the last crash. We cannot allow that to happen.

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