Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)
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Question 262: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government if his Department will issue guidelines to planning authorities in order to standardise the instances in which conditions for the maintenance or management of proposed developments are applied to planning permissions; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36125/05]

Pádraic McCormack (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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Question 267: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government his plans to introduce the necessary legislation or regulation to eliminate the necessity for management companies in new housing estates (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36179/05]

Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)
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Question 270: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government if his Department will issue guidelines to planning authorities in order to standardise the instances in which conditions for the maintenance or management of proposed developments, including the establishment of a company or appointment of a person or body of persons to carry out such maintenance or management, are applied to planning permissions; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36192/05]

Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)
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Question 271: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government if his Department has considered the long-term implications of transferring the maintenance responsibility of housing estates from developers to other private persons or bodies such as management companies; if his attention has been drawn to instances where such management companies have failed to live up to their maintenance responsibilities; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36209/05]

Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 262, 267, 270 and 271 together.

A working group of the Law Reform Commission is examining a range of legal issues relating to the management of multi-unit structures. The Government will consider the recommendations of the final report, including the necessity, if any, for new legislation in this area. Management companies operate in the majority of apartment developments, in some other higher density developments, often with a mix of designs, and in a very small number of standard housing developments. The role of management companies is to maintain the common property, including buildings, sewers, water pipes, public lighting, roads and footpaths contained within the boundaries of the overall property. When housing developments are taken in charge, it is the responsibility of the local authority to maintain public infrastructure such as roads, footpaths, sewers, water mains and public lighting. The existence of a management company should not override the legal obligation on developers to complete estates and, where required by the planning permission, to maintain estates until they are taken in charge.

Section 34 of the Planning and Development Act 2000 introduced a number of provisions designed to ensure that housing estates are finished as soon as possible, maintained to a satisfactory standard for the benefit of those living in them and taken in charge by local authorities. The section recognises the common practice of establishing management companies, control of which is transferred to the owners of the housing units, to maintain or manage residential developments. Individual planning authorities must make their own judgments, based on local circumstances and policies, about how and to what extent they should use the new framework planning legislation provisions in particular cases. The Department has asked planning authorities for a report on their policies on the attachment of conditions relating to management companies to planning permissions for various types of residential developments.