Denis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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Question 125: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government if he will clarify section 180 of the Planning and Development Act 2000 to facilitate qualified residents issuing notice to a local authority to take an estate in charge prior to the expiry of the seven-year period, when the developer has abandoned the site; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30548/11]

Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour)
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Section 180 of the Planning and Development Act 2000 provides that where estates have not been completed to the satisfaction of the planning authority, and enforcement proceedings have not been commenced within the relevant period, the planning authority must, if requested to do so by the majority of owners, initiate the procedures for taking the estate in charge.

Section 180 was amended in the Planning and Development (Amendment) Act 2010 to provide that a planning authority may take in charge an unfinished estate, at the request of the owners of the housing units, at any time after the expiration of the planning permission, in situations where enforcement actions have commenced or where the planning authority consider that enforcement action will not result in the satisfactory completion of the estate by the developer. Planning authorities have also been empowered to take in charge part of an estate or some, but not all, of the facilities in an estate. The decision as whether to take an estate in charge is ultimately one for the elected members of a local authority.