'Ghost estates' group to be set up

A national co-ordination committee to oversee work on ghost estates will be established in the next two weeks, the Minister for Housing and Planning has said.

Speaking at the launch of the final report of the Advisory Group on Unfinished Housing Developments, Willie Penrose, who will chair the committee, called on banks, developers, Nama, local authorities and other stakeholders to work together to resolve their problems.

The advisory group report, Resolving Ireland's Unfinished Housing Estates, found some 23,250 dwellings were completed and vacant, and almost another 10,000 were near complete.

The report recommended that site resolution plans be prepared by developers or site owners for each unfinished development. It said teams should be established within banks, Nama, the Construction Industry Federation, approved housing bodies and local authorities to co-operate and facilitate decision-making on sites.

Sites must be secured to minimise risk to current residents and the public, it said.

Mr Penrose said the option of doing nothing with unfinished estates was "untenable", but said there was no "silver bullet" to resolve the problems.

He would chair the committee himself, he said, to ensure work was carried out and would introduce legislation to give powers to local authorities to take over estates where work was not being completed.

"I anticipate that everybody will get involved in resolving the problems," he said.

"If there is any reluctance or tardiness or delay or obfuscation, or procrastination they will be hit with the Derelict Sites Act and other legislation where required."