Tom Morrissey (Progressive Democrats)

I thank the Minister of State for taking this matter. The concept of management companies is in dire need of reform and regulation because hundreds of thousands of euro is being collected from householders who have moved into apartment complexes and mixed housing developments. However, there is no transparency in the collection and expenditure of this money and the bank accounts in which it is held. I held public meetings in Lusk and Balbriggan in north County Dublin and the information I gathered indicates that a number of management companies can only be contacted through a mobile number which, more often that not, is out of service. In a number of instances, management companies are not even registered with the Companies Registration Office. They are flying in the face of their legal corporate governance responsibilities.

During a debate in the House last May, the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government addressed this issue and whether such companies are acceptable on housing estates. I accept they are needed in apartment complexes that have common areas such as lifts, stairwells and hallways but people residing on traditional housing estates cannot see the need for them. Some 500,000 people, 12% of the population, live in apartment complexes with management companies, but the area is not regulated.

A further bone of contention is whether this practice is legal. Will the Government be landed with a bill of unforeseen magnitude and do councils have a legitimate right to impose a planning condition that they cannot enforce? Normally, a condition in a planning permission is enforceable, for example, landscaping for trees, open spaces and so on. In this situation, councils are imposing the condition of a management company and are then walking away and saying that the estates are no longer their responsibilities. However, a planning permission should be enforceable by the authority that grants it.

If a test case were taken, local authorities could be held liable in respect of management companies in conventional estates where people have own-door keys, that is, they do not share hall doors or common spaces. It is wrong that people are forced to pay for public liability insurance and public lighting, that the estates are not taken in charge by councils and that people are left with the long-term responsibility of establishing sinking funds in their communities for roads, open spaces and all other areas over which councils have traditionally had responsibility because they claim that these are privately managed estates.

A ridiculous situation has developed. In Dublin, someone living in a €5 million house could pay no charges for the upkeep of his or her estate because it is taken in charge in terms of public lighting, maintenance, grass cutting and so on in the normal way. Young couples on the affordable housing list in Fingal, people on lower incomes by the very nature of being on the list, are told when they sign their mortgages, which they get with the assistance of the council, that the estate is managed and that they must supply a cheque for €500 on day one and a cheque for €800 or €1,000 next year. This situation is ironic, outlandish and needs regulation. In the first instance, the Minister must instruct local authorities that they must desist from including such conditions in planning permissions.