Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

My colleagues have been talking about mortgages and the effect of the increase in the mortgage interest rate. What was said is very true. Many of the people who are dramatically affected by mortgage repayments are those living in apartments throughout Dublin and most urban areas. I refer to those who bought apartments at the height of the Celtic tiger and whose properties are in severe negative equity.

I welcome the recently introduced legislation to deal specifically with people who are living in apartments. The Property Services Regulatory Authority was established under the Property Services (Regulation) Act in 2011 but the problem is that significant numbers have not yet registered. I want to know why. Service charges within the apartment complexes concerned were supposed to have been monitored and administered under the legislation. I would like to know exactly what is happening, if anything, under the legislation. I would like a report on how successful the legislation has been, if it has been successful at all. Many of the common areas in the apartment complexes are to be transferred to owner-operated management companies from NAMA builders and broke developers. Very little has happened in this area.

The multi-unit developments legislation introduced in 2011 was designed to deal with the gross injustice affecting people who spent money genuinely to try to create a home for themselves in a what was a very difficult environment some years ago. I want a debate on this issue. The thousands of people in their 20s and 30s who paid vast amounts of money deserve to know how successful are the legislative provisions.