Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail)
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80. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government if he will address the crisis in estates around the country that are not completed to the satisfaction of the local council to allow them to be taken in charge where the development company are no longer in business and the council have not been provided funding by Government to complete the work as these estates are deteriorating and in some cases do not have completed public lighting; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33162/16]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Section 180 of the Planning and Development Act 2000, as amended, provides that, as soon as possible following a request by the developer or by the majority of the house-owners, a planning authority must initiate procedures to take in charge a residential housing estate completed to its satisfaction in accordance with the planning permission.

Section 180 also provides that, following a request by the majority of the house-owners, a planning authority must initiate procedures to take an unfinished estate in charge where the authority has not commenced enforcement proceedings in respect of the estate within seven years of the expiry of the planning permission concerned.

In the case of an unfinished estate, where the planning authority has commenced enforcement proceedings within seven years of the expiry of the planning permission or considers that enforcement proceedings will not result in the satisfactory completion of the estate, section 180 provides that, following a request by the majority of the house-owners, the authority may at its absolute discretion initiate procedures to take in charge the roads and some or all of the other services in the estate. A planning authority may, for the purposes of section 180, hold a plebiscite to ascertain the wishes of the house-owners.

My Department, by way of Circular letter PD 1/2008 dated 26 February 2008, issued updated policy guidance to planning authorities on Taking in Charge of Residential Developments/Management Arrangements. This advised each planning authority to develop or update, as appropriate, its policy on taking in charge by the end of June 2008, based on the following principles (among others):

- Certain core facilities/infrastructure to be taken in charge on request

- public roads and footpaths, unallocated surface parking areas, public lighting, public water supply, foul and storm water drainage and public open spaces;

- The procedures for taking in charge to begin promptly on foot of a request by the majority of the residents in the development or by the developer, as appropriate. Protocols, including time frames, must be set out by planning authorities to respond to requests for taking in charge.

Each planning authority’s policy on taking in charge is required to be made available to the public and published on its website, and the policy is reported on to the elected members on a regular basis, and at least once annually.

In addition, my Department has launched in April 2016 a National Taking in Charge Initiative (NTICI) with a pilot scheme funding of €10 million.  The aim of the NTICI is to accelerate the taking-in-charge process of housing estates and to develop new working methods from the pilot funding that can be deployed in tackling further taking-in-charge requirements into the future.

The initiative draws upon data gathered from each of the 31 local authorities and collated by my Department in December 2015, following which funding was allocated for a number of developments on the basis of proposals submitted to my Department by the local authorities.

The information collated in December 2015 indicated that of the 5,566 developments yet to be taken in charge, there are approximately 914 estates with developer-provided infrastructure (DPI) and work is continuing on finalising this figure.

Under the terms of the NTICI, only those developments subject to valid taking-in-charge applications were eligible for inclusion in the call for proposals for pilot funding, but it is my Department’s intention that the knowledge and experience gained under the Initiative will be applied to deal with further estates to be taken in charge over time.

Further information on NTICI can be found on my Department’s website at the following link: