State Papers – Day One: Complaints about rogue developers to leader
Confidential files, just released, show a memo was passed around Government ministers in 1980 about the scourge of private developments being left uncompleted around the country.
The high-level missive drew attention to Fianna Fáil’s promise in its local election manifesto the year before to crackdown on cowboy builders and make them pay to put everything right.
The 1979 manifesto declared: “Developers will have to foot the cost of completing estates one way or the other.”
It also claimed that the party wanted developer bonds — money lodged as security with local authorities as a condition of planning permission — to be set at realistic levels so they covered the cost of carrying out works left undone.
At the time, there were 120 abandoned housing estates around the country with safety concerns over sewerage, public lighting, footpaths, roads and open spaces.
But while Fianna Fáil vowed ahead of the polls to stump up £3 million (about €13.2 million today) towards a clean-up, the files show they became worried in power that using taxpayers’ money would only encourage builders to ignore their obligations.
Finance Minister Michael O’Kennedy considered it “unacceptable in principle” that public money would be used to right the wrongs of builders and demanded an overhaul of planning conditions. The problem was so bad in south-east Dublin that the honorary secretary of Fianna Fáil’s Dun Laoghaire constituency executive, Breandán Ó Leanglaoich, wrote to Mr Haughey on behalf of the party grassroots on June 19, 1980.
“Frequently housing estates are left unfinished by builders, many of whom are known Fianna Fáil supporters,” he wrote.
Mr Ó Leanglaoich said there were 52 uncompleted developments in Dun Laoghaire and asked the Taoiseach to bring pressure to bear on the builders.
The party official also complained that the “quality of answers” government departments gave to Fianna Fáil councillors “leaves a lot to be desired”.
He added: “They should contain more substance than the answers sent to Opposition councillors.”
Mr Haughey said he noted the concerns of less than preferential treatment for Fianna Fáil councillors, adding: “I will have a look at the situation to see what can be done.”
The Taoiseach insisted local authorities were responsible for policing developers.
But he said he had contacted David Andrews TD and Environment Minister Sylvester Barrett about the issue.
A Government memo showed the Cabinet later agreed on an £500,000 (about €2.2 million now) scheme of grants that year to be reviewed at a later date.
