Denis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I have no difficulty with the local authorities living up to their responsibilities. However, in a large number of estates in counties Galway and Roscommon, the developer is gone and is not to be found. When the planning permission was granted, IBRC, which is owned by the State, put bonds in place for some of these developers. Now this State agency is not honouring these bonds. The insurance companies that were licensed by the Irish Financial Services Regulatory Authority issued commitments and bonds that they are not honouring. Even pillar banks, such as Bank of Ireland, are dragging their heels over releasing bonds in cases where there is no developer and people are living in what are still building sites.

Those bonds were a condition of the planning permission. Fees were paid by the developer to ensure a bond was put in place. Now we find that some of the supposedly most reputable organisations in the country are washing their hands of it and letting people remain in these half-finished estates without releasing the money to get them completed.

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