Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

That is pretty much along the lines of the Minister of State's previous answer. No one is asking Government or the Exchequer to carry the can for every defective development. The majority of sinking funds held by management companies and owner management companies are wholly insufficient to deal with some of the deficiencies and defects. In many instances, builders and insurers have walked away, there is an argument and people are left in abeyance. The Joint Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government did a good report on this, "Safe as Houses?", which contained several detailed recommendations. That gained cross-party acceptance at the committee. Is the Minister of State minded to accept any of those recommendations and move on them or is it a case of thanking the committee for doing the report and moving on?

The Apartment Owners Network has requested certain measures as well. I intend to bring forward legislation this month in respect of sinking fund provisions and giving more clarity. I hope we will be able to secure support across the House and in Government to move that forward speedily. There are deficiencies in this area. Management companies were relatively new in Ireland ten or 12 years ago. There is a lot of work to be done to bring them under control. We need to address this for the 500,000 people living in multi-unit developments, many with defects.

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