Written Answers. - Parliamentary Debates - Houses of the Oireachtas

[Deputy Phil Hogan.]
Questions— 14 February 2012. Written Answers
• Category two, where a receiver has been appointed;
• Category three, where a receiver has not been appointed and the developer is still in
place but effectively inactive; and
• Category four, where the development has been effectively abandoned and is posing
serious problems for residents.
Other relevant factors for the purposes of the categorisation process include, inter alia:
• the state of completion of roads, footpaths, public lighting facilities, piped water and
sewerage facilities and open spaces or similar amenities within the development;
• the extent to which the development complies with the terms of applicable planning
permission;
• the extent to which it complies with the provisions of the Building Control Acts 1990
and 2007;
• the provisions of the Local Government (Sanitary Services) Act 1964 as they pertain
to dangerous places and dangerous structures within the meaning of the Act;
• the extent to which facilities within the development have been taken in charge by the
local authority concerned; and
• where there is an agreement regarding the maintenance of such facilities, the extent
to which this agreement has been complied with.
In some cases a local authority may have found that conditions in respect of a certain phase of
a development were relatively good and that, for example, no serious public safety issues could
be identified. This phase of the development may have been categorised under category 1 or
2. Conversely, safety issues may have been identified in another phase of the same overall
development, or development in that second phase may have been abandoned altogether,
implying a category 3 or 4 identification for that phase. This categorisation formed the basis for
the list of those unfinished developments eligible for a waiver on the annual household charge.
Only households in developments in categories three and four are eligible for the waiver
from payment of the household charge. The list of developments in which households are
eligible for the waiver in 2012 is set out under the Local Government (Household Charge)
Regulations 2012 and forms the complete list of such developments for this year. A revised
list of estates will be prescribed for 2013 after which time the waiver for unfinished housing
developments will end. Throughout this period it is anticipated that the numbers of categories
3 and 4 developments will decrease as my Department continues to work with local authorities
and other stakeholders to resolve outstanding issues, including through the Public Safety
Initiative.
Planning Issues
441. Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local
Government the discretion Eirgrid has at its disposal to move a line carrying a pole a short
distance if the relocation would benefit local residents and have no detrimental effect on any
other local resident and if An Bord Pleanála were to sanction the permission, or if this discretion
for relocation is curtailed. [7974/12]
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