The government must act urgently to implement the safety recommendations of an Oireachtas Housing Committee report due to be published today, Dublin Bay North Social Democrats’ councillor and spokesperson on Fire Safety and Building Standards Cian O’Callaghan has said.
Councillor O’Callaghan said:
“The recommendations of a report by the Oireachtas Housing Committee stating that there was “a significant level of non-compliance, negligence and incompetence,” in some Celtic Tiger era building developments must be urgently implemented by Government.
“More than 30 housing developments from the Celtic Tiger era have been reported in the media to have had serious breaches of fire safety regulations. We know that there are many more developments where serious problems have emerged that have not been reported in the media.
“The failure of local authorities and the Department of Housing to come to terms with the scale of this problem and to assist residents is inexcusable.
“For example, I’ve made several requests to Dublin Fire Brigade and Dublin City Council to meet with residents in one estate where serious fire safety defects have emerged, and they have refused this very reasonable request on several occasions.
“In my own Council area, Fingal County Council have spent more than one million euro remediating fire safety defects in social housing stock in a development in North County Dublin while at the same time withholding important fire safety reports from the residents in the estate. The Council also neglected to take effective enforcement action against the developer.
“It is vital that the Minister for Housing Eoghan Murphy urgently assists residents and homeowners struggling to deal with the Celtic Tiger legacy of fire safety building defects.”
ENDS
24 January 2018