75% Of Unfinished Estate Houses In 15 Worst Funded Local Authorities

13th October 2006

Catherine Murphy TD, (Ind) has today released figures that highlight what she has termed a "gross failure on the part of Government to tackle urban and suburban issues related to chronic Local Government under-funding." Her figures, based on information provided by the Department of the Environment regarding the number of housing estates that remain to be Taken In Charge by Local Authorities, show that 75% of all 69510 houses in housing estates that remain to be taken in charge are within the boarders of 15 Local Authorities that boast the worst funding ratios nationally.

These 15 Local Authorities combined are home to just over 63% of the national population however were allocated only 48% of all funding handed out under the Local Government Fund 2006. All 15 have per capita funding ratios below the national average, i.e. the level of funding divided by the number of persons in the administrative area equates to under €226 per person per year. At the highest end of the scale Leitrim received an allocation of €547 per capita and has 131 houses awaiting Taking In Charge, however at the bottom of the scale South Dublin County Council received €108 per capita and has 6046 houses awaiting Taking In Charge. Kildare, with the highest number of houses awaiting Taking In Charge, 11200, received only €145.50 per head of population in the 2006 Local Government Fund

Murphy believes the epidemic of unfinished housing estates is integrally linked to Local Government Funding:

"The taking in charge issue is primarily a funding issue in that many Local Authorities simply don’t have the resources to monitor developers as actively as is required. Furthermore they do not have the resources to actively pursue developers to fulfill their obligations in completing housing estates when they have failed to do so. This is why so many residents groups are having to pursue the issue so persistently; developers are taking advantage of the low level of regulation that exists, particularly in Local Authority areas where the officials simply don’t have the resources to monitor them more closely, and homeowners are having to pester both the Local Authority and the Developer until the problem is corrected. Until the Department of the Environment recognizes that chronic under funding is at the heart of these suburban and urban issues we’ll continue to see them crop up time and again."

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Posted by admin on October 13, 2006. Filed under Latest News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.