Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Question 432: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the position on the establishment of management companies in respect of new housing developments which consist of traditional houses, in view of his statements to Dáil Éireann that traditional housing developments would not be the subject of management company type arrangements; if his attention has been drawn to the fact that currently new housing estates of traditional houses are being advertised in the Dublin 15 area subject to a management company being set up and purchasers of the houses being liable to pay an annual service charge; the regulations which he has put in place in respect of the development of such management companies; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22452/06]

Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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I have made it clear that it is not appropriate for planning authorities to attach planning conditions requiring management companies to maintain the roads, services, etc., in the case of traditional housing estates, by which I mean estates of houses with their own front and back gardens. It is, of course, open to developers to require that purchasers of residential units become members of a management company irrespective of whether there are planning conditions requiring such companies and it is a matter for buyers to exercise their discretion as to whether to purchase in such a scheme.

As I have stated previously, the related issues of planning conditions regarding management companies and taking in charge can be complex, particularly in the newer mixed estates which contain apartments, duplex houses and terraced houses, with shared facilities such as car-parking and gardens. Genuine questions arise as to whether it is appropriate that all facilities on these estates, which may include high specification paving, lighting and landscaping, should be taken in charge and maintained at public expense. Many of these facilities are replacing the traditional gardens which, in a conventional housing estate, would fall to be maintained by the residents rather than the local authority.

My Department is at present updating the residential density guidelines following on the publication of the Housing Policy Framework: Building Sustainable Communities, last December. It will be appropriate to examine further the issues of taking in charge and management companies in this context. My attention has not been drawn to the developments referred to in the Question. However, in replying to a survey by my Department as to their policy on attaching planning conditions regarding management companies to residential estates, Fingal County Council stated that they were not aware of any instance where they had conditioned a management company in a housing-only context. They stated that in the case of mixed developments, involving apartments and housing, there are instances where management companies have been required, but that in such cases the range of services to be provided by the management company is confined to those not taken in charge in normal housing, such as highly landscaped open space areas and incidental landscaping to a high standard of specification. In such cases, the usual local authority services such as public lighting, water services, bin collection, road sweeping, etc are not required to be provided by the such companies.