Colm Burke (Cork North Central, Fine Gael)
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324. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the additional funding that will be provided to local authorities to enable them to take in charge housing estates which were partially finished prior to 2008, and which require additional work to be carried out before they are taken in charge; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8770/23]

Colm Burke (Cork North Central, Fine Gael)
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326. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the number of housing estates including the number of houses which were completed prior to 31 December 2008, and which have still not been taken in charge in each local authority, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8772/23]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 324 and 326 together.

Financial decision-making and the accountability of local authorities is a matter for the elected members of a local authority who have direct responsibility in law for all reserved functions of the authority, which includes adopting the annual budget. Section 103 of the Local Government Act, 2001, as amended, provides for the local authority budgetary process. It is a matter for each local authority to determine its own spending priorities in the context of the annual budgetary process, having regard to both locally identified needs and available resources. This includes the taking in charge of housing estates.

The taking in charge of housing estates is a reserved function of the elected members of local authorities under Section 180 of the Planning and Development Act 2000, as amended (the Act), and it is a matter for the relevant planning authority to consider the taking in charge of estates on a case by case basis. Taking in charge is an iterative process and the number of developments in any given local authority area is subject to ongoing change as new developments commence, while other developments progress and move towards the completion phase, and may become the subject of an application to be taken in charge under Section 180 of the Act.

The intention of the relevant provisions in the Act is that once a residential estate is completed, the planning authority can be requested to take over the roads and footpaths, public lighting and open spaces. However, where work has not been completed to satisfactory standards, there can be a delay in this process as enforcement proceedings against concerned developers, including invocation of bonds, are progressed.

Subsection 2 of section 180 requires a planning authority, where requested by the majority of the owners of the dwellings involved, to take in charge a residential estate even if it has not been completed to the satisfaction of the authority, if four years have elapsed since the expiry of the planning permission and no enforcement action has been initiated.

Ultimately, progression of individual developments through the taking-in-charge process is a matter for the relevant housing developer, the residents in such developments and the relevant local authorities, following the procedures set out in section 180 of the Act.

Under Section 30 of the Act, I, in my role as Minister with responsibility for planning, am precluded from exercising any power or control in relation to any particular case with which a planning authority or the Board is or may be concerned.

My Department does not compile data regarding housing developments that remain to be taken in charge. Such data should be sought directly from the relevant local authority.