MURPHY WELCOMES REPORT ON UNFINISHED HOUSING ESTATES BUT WARNS OF NEED FOR MORE FUNDING & DEVELOPER CONTRIBUTIONS TO FULLY TACKLE PROBLEM

Press Release 10th June 2011

Catherine Murphy TD has today welcomed a report on Unfinished Housing Estates released by Minister of State in the Department of Environment, Community & Local Government with responsibility for Housing & Planning, Willie Penrose.  As a long-time campaigner on the issue of unfinished estates Murphy expressed satisfaction that this “long overdue” report has finally been published.

“This is not a new problem, since I first became a public representative in the 1980s I’ve been dealing with housing estates, many of which were effectively abandoned, by developers and whose residents encountered all kinds of problems as a result.  In one way I’m extremely pleased to see this issue find its way onto the national agenda but on the other it’s disgraceful that we’re now facing such a volume of unfinished & abandoned estates that a national initiative is called for.”

The Kildare North, TD has highlighted the consistent problems faced by countless Kildare residents as a result of this problem over the years due, in part, to being classified as a commuter-belt county.  She also acknowledged that never before has the county faced such a volume of abandoned estates.

“the number of unfinished estates in the country is at a record high … but it’s not just a numbers game, many of these estates may look like building sites but don’t forget that people live in these places.  Someone has to pay to make them safe & habitable and I’m furious that many developers are getting away scot-free.”

Murphy went on to highlight that although many developers have gone into receivership or bankruptcy and no longer have the funds to complete works to estates many did not fall to this fate and they must be pursued.

“I refuse to believe that every developer who embarked on one of these projects is completely out of money.  For years these people sold houses off the plans at astronomical prices; that money still exists somewhere and while some invested very unwisely I’m circumspect to believe that each and every Irish developer lack’s the finances to fix a problem affecting thousands of people around the country.”

The Kildare Deputy concluded in stating that the State has always been too lax in pursuing developers to complete housing estates and the result has been a cost to the tax-payer and those who bought in good faith.

“This problem will take a lot of money to fix and I’m determined that the best way to acquire that money is to pursue developers with more rigour than has been the case before.  This report is positive but it just marks the beginning of a very long and, as yet, un-surfaced road!”

ENDS

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Posted by admin on June 10, 2011. Filed under Kildare,Planning & Development,Your Home & You. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry