Colm Burke (Fine Gael)

I am aware the Minister of State has just come from a meeting where this issue was being discussed. I apologise, but I understood the Adjournment would be a little later.

This issue concerns property that was built with planning permission under the planning Acts which must comply with Part V. In order to comply with Part V, the agreement is that the developer must provide a separate piece of land to the local authority. The problem that has arisen is that a property that is developed and fully finished is mortgaged with a bank which is not part of NAMA and the land that was offered to the local authorities is mortgaged with a different bank. The problem now is that the bank that has the separate piece of land is not prepared to surrender it to the local authority. Therefore, the receiver cannot comply with Part V and the local authority refuses to yield on it. As a result, approximately 160 units are left sitting and cannot be sold because an engineer's certificate of compliance with planning cannot be furnished.

Will the Government take a look into this issue? I am sure this is not the only example of what is happening, but it is the particular case of which I am aware. The requirement to comply with Part V is an important part of the planning process and I am not looking for it to be changed. However, we now have a situation where developments do not comply with the planning Acts because of the changes which have occurred in the building industry over the past three to four years and there is a need to get NAMA, the relevant Departments and the local authorities to work together to move this matter forward so that we do not have properties lying idle because of not being able to comply with planning regulations.

In this particular case, nine months after the issue was raised with the local authority, it had still not resolved the problem and to date, the issue is unresolved. It is for that reason I raise the matter. It is an issue that must be resolved, particularly at a time when we are trying to resolve financial difficulties and to prevent the problem of property lying vacant and idle. I urge that the matter be dealt with in a co-ordinated fashion so that we can resolve all such problems as early as possible.