Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I have seen the guidance documents. No matter what way this is dressed up, apartments are being permitted to be built with plaster slabs. In any I have seen there is no timber at the back of the plaster slabs, except the timber frame itself. This construction is a fire hazard. I hope I am proved wrong but we are running the risk of a tragedy happening in an apartment block. Why are we continuing to allow developers to build these matchboxes with timber and plaster board? There should be proper standards. These apartments do not even have proper balconies; rooms are shaped more like a banana than a regular room. I was in an apartment where anyone of normal height sitting on the couch at one wall could stretch over to the far wall.

The officials and the legislators have a responsibility to do something to address this situation. Why is timber frame and plaster board construction allowed? The guidance documents state that fire will not travel through this construction; the fact of the matter is that timber burns and plaster slabs are not sound-proof. People have neither security nor privacy. Why do we continue to punish people by forcing them to live in such places? How many people in this room want to live in a place like that? I do not see any hands raised. Now is the time to do something before another crazy building boom starts. I ask the delegates to tell us what TDs need to do.