Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Obviously, this is an issue for the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government. For people living in apartments and flats, their position is entirely different from that of those living in a housing estate where one can walk out the front door and on to a pavement and public access. In the boom times, local authorities used this as a cash cow by which to levy additional funds from those communities. Of course, those people obtain certain services by paying the maintenance fees. I think there are two different situations here and we need to look at this very closely. Ultimately, some new policy position has to be formed for people living in housing estates, as I do and I do not pay management fees. Why should one pay management fees in a housing estate that happened to be built at the wrong time? I do not think that applies to apartments because they are separate builds-----