2,800 ghost estates identified

More than 2,800 "ghost" estates - unfinished or vacant housing estates - have been identified by the National Housing Development Survey.

Some 23,000 completed but unoccupied houses and apartments have been identified by the survey, which was commissioned by the Department of the Environment.

A further 20,000 are at various stages of completion, half of which have been identified as being at "early stages" of construction. Just over 78,000 houses within incomplete estates are occupied, while 58,000 houses have permission but have not been built.

The estates are at various states of completion, with some having fully finished and occupied apartment blocks and houses while others are just partially constructed or have vacant plots where building has yet to begin.

Each of the State's 34 city and county council's were assessed by the survey. Cork County Council had by far the largest number of ghost estates, with 284 unfinished or substantially vacant developments.

Counties which had grown large commuter populations for Dublin city had some of the highest numbers of ghost estates, with 180 identified in Wexford, 152 in Fingal and 147 in Cavan.

The problem is at its worst in western counties were the large number of unfinished estates is coupled with low populations. In addition to Cork, Kerry has 152 ghost estates, Donegal has 133, Mayo has 129 and Roscommon has 118.

The problem is less severe in city council areas. Dublin city, which has by far the largest population of any local authority area as 97 ghost estates, Galway city has 34, Cork city has just 21, while numbers are at their smallest in Waterford and Limerick cities which have just 12 estates respectively.

A task force is being established to devise solutions to the problem, which could include the demolition of some developments. The group will hold its first meeting within the next two weeks and is due to report next January.

It will be made up of representatives of the National Assets Management Agency central and local government, the banking and construction sectors, and members of the professional architectural, planning and engineering institutes.

Responding to the findings, Fine Gael said unfinished ghost estates were the legacy of a Government whose only solution is to propose "yet another taskforce".

Housing spokesman Terence Flanagan TD said: "While Fianna Fáil and the Greens once again put off any real decisions, thousands are left living in ghost estates with dangerous conditions such as open sewers and water contamination.

"Glib proposals on producing a best practice guide for unfinished housing estates 'sometime in the new year' will not offer any sense of hope to homeowners stuck in ghost estates. All FF/Green Government's task forces - and there are many - only seem to 'faff around' and end up in failure," Mr Flanagan said.

"What we are looking at is the result of years of favourable property tax breaks overseen by Fianna Fáil finance ministers such as our current Taoiseach, Brian Cowen."

Labour housing spokesman Ciarán Lynch TD said today's report read "like a Domesday Book for the tail end of the Celtic Tiger".

"What is clear is that people . . . are living through a hell that has come about as a result of a government that saw housing policy simply as a means of delivering bounty to their pals in the construction and investment community, rather than providing homes for people who need a place to live."

Mr Lynch called for a plan of action to urgently tackle the issue and for planning minister Ciaran Cuffe to publish the report in full and put aside time in the Dáil for debate on the issue.

Sinn Féin environment spokesman Martin Ferris TD called on the Government to reallocate some of the empty houses to people on local authority housing lists.

“There are currently 1,000 people on the housing list in my own county, and this report has identified 675 houses in Kerry that are complete but unoccupied. It does not take a rocket scientist to figure out where at least a partial solution lies,” Mr Ferris said.