THE JUNIOR MINISTER with responsibility for housing says that there are signs that the problem of unfinished housing estates is coming to an end.

Jan O’Sullivan was speaking at the launch of the second annual National Housing Development Survey.

The survey has been tracking the extent and condition of unfinished housing developments since 2010.

This year it found that:

• There are 56 per cent less unfinished developments than 2010
• There are 72 per cent less unoccupied units in unfinished developments in the same time

and

• There have been 553 developments effectively resolved in past 12 months

With regard to the 1,258 unfinished developments across the country, O’Sullivan said the plan was to move the issue to its endgame, particularly in relation to the 992 developments with residents.

“We will proceed with a multi-pronged approach,” she said.

“Resolution of the developments will in the first instance be by means of enforcement of planning conditions at local authority level and/or the release of funds from bonds”.

A €10 million allocation to the Site Resolution Fund will handle cases where those options are not available to local authorities.

O’Sullivan concluded that she hoped to see a resolution for the problem in the coming year.

“I would like to see as complete a resolution of these difficulties as possible, in the coming year. I hope to report next year that the difficulties we inherited have been substantially resolved.”

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