a combination FOI and a well phrased question in the Dáil is what is required.
The FOI should request all reports in their possession and collated thus.
1. Has the Minister for Housing or any other official of the Department of Housing or of the Department of the Environment commissioned a survey of multiple ownership blocks in the state with a view to determining the ongoing functionality of their Mananagement Entity .
2. Does the Dept contract this out and to whom.
3. Does the Dept require that reports be submiitted by any agency on a periodic bases , if so whom.
4. In the absence of 2 or 3 does the Dept produce internal estimates of functional or ofdysfunctional Management companies.
5. How are the statistics formulated.
6. Who checks them
The Dept of Housing had better start to get the finger out anyway. They assume these things take care of themselves when they obviously do not.
An
Apartment Dwelling Citizenship Course should be mandatory for all owners of an apartment with a shared Management Company. If it ran for 2 years (about 4 evenings worth) and you got a cert to show you finished it then you should be given a full tax break on the course and maybe a few quid on top for the hassle . Of course once you have the cert you have no excuse either
We are becoming a nation of urbanised apartment dwellers and its high time we accepted the consequences of that.
If Noel Ahern was any good he would have the course running in EVERY IT and in EVERY PLC college in the country by September. He is afraid to touch the issue in case it blows up on him before the election.
Look at the stats , http://www.environ.ie/DOEI/doeipub.nsf/0/daac160e1d73c27d80256f0f003dbc05/$FILE/2006%2001%20DOEHLG%20Construction%20Indicators%20Issue%204%20Final.pdf (between 1 in 3 and 1 in 4 permissions nowadays are for apartments .)