Serious health threats plague ‘ghost estates’

A SIZEABLE number of housing estates “thrown up” by developers in recent years are plagued by serious health threats, including open sewers and water contamination, a Government survey said.

The preliminary findings of a national study of so-called ghost estates are being pored over by officials charged with clearing up the mess left by boom-time developers. While councils will receive power to seize control of the worst unfinished developments, the National Assets Management Agency (NAMA) will take over the lion’s share.

Official inspectors are visiting the sites and drawing up a detailed map of every housing estate granted planning permission in the last five years. Planning Minister Ciaran Cuffe has ordered a full report for next month, but a pilot study in Laois that has just landed on his desk already suggests the scale of the fiasco. It found: