Ms Ciara Holland:

Yes certainly, and I thank the Chairman. As mentioned by Deputy Ó Broin, I own a two-bedroom apartment in Stillorgan that had fire defects. We were informed in December 2018 and were levied with €16,250 a month later. We were in the fortunate position that most of the people had paid up and in the summer of 2019 all of those fire issues were remedied. My developer is still in operation and was recently granted planning permission just down the road from me. I objected to that planning application to Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council on the basis of section 35 of the Planning Act but it unfortunately did not uphold my objection and the developer was granted planning permission.

The county council was fully aware that developer had previously built defective homes and had not complied with the fire certificate that was granted to it but the council granted the developer planning permission in any event. I feel completely let down and I am shocked and disgusted that this was allowed and that the regulatory environment just does not work. It does not protect the innocent people. I have two little girls and I put them to bed all of their little lives in a fire- defective home. It is not right. Safety is more important to me than getting any money back from the €16,000 I have paid to make my developer accountable and responsible for what he has done and ensuring that this does not happen again. When my little girls grow up I can say to them that I fought for something to improve this and make it right and ensure they could buy an apartment in the future.

The way things stand at the moment I would advise people not to buy apartments because they are not protected and do not know what they are buying. I bought my apartment second hand. I did everything right. I engaged a surveyor who inspected and signed off on the property. Unless he had taken down the ceilings, walls and vents, he would not have known the deficiencies in the property. The only person who did was the developer. We have been utterly failed not only by the developer but also by the Government. I have been in touch with everybody. When I first found out about this in December 2018, I got in touch with the council, the fire officer and the then Minister. I looked for support on Google. I have done everything and anything I can to try to get justice and I have vowed that I will keep working on this until I do and my developer is held accountable for what he has done to us.