Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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The Minister is aware of a serious problem regarding Larkfield House where 44 families have been placed in a difficult position as a result of a decision by a developer to build and tenant the property without planning permission and proper building certification.

Last week, An Bord Pleanála made its determination that the refusal of the planning permission was upheld and therefore those properties do not have planning permission and South Dublin County Council has commenced enforcement. I will not ask the Minister about that. My major worry, which I know is shared by the Minister, his officials and the local authorities involved, is that these 44 families may have to present as homeless at any stage in the incoming period. We do not want that. There are tenants in the property who are the responsibility, in some shape or form, of South Dublin County Council, Dublin City County Council, Fingal County Council and at least two other local authorities outside Dublin. Some came via the Dublin Regional Homeless Executive, so there is a fair amount of complication.

I have three points to put to the Minister. His Department needs to be as proactive as possible in working with the different local authorities and the Dublin Regional Homeless Executive to ensure the families get all the support they need so that if the planning issues cannot be resolved, they are assisted to move into alternative private rental accommodation. I spoke to officials in the Minister's Department last week and this week. They have been very helpful, but I ask the Minister to give us some reassurance that he and his staff will do everything they can to work with the other local authorities to resolve what is an incredibly stressful situation for the residents. I met with a very large group of them last night and they are hugely concerned. Some of these people have come from hubs or emergency accommodation. Those 44 families thought they were at the end of that experience and, through no fault of the local authorities or the Minister's Department but as a result, in my opinion, of the inappropriate and potentially illegal behaviour of a developer, they are now in an incredibly difficult position. I raise that with the Minister to hear what assurance he can give me and, through the committee, the families in question, that he will do everything he can to assist them during this very difficult period.

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy for taking the time to raise it with me formally in committee. I know he has been working with the residents to try to find an early solution for them. This is a very frustrating situation to be in where we have what appears to be a perfectly good building with tenants in it but which potentially may be an illegal building and, as a result of that potential, tenants who thought they were at home may not be in the coming weeks and months. I am aware of the work Deputy Ó Broin has been doing and that he has been in touch with my officials. They will meet the Dublin Regional Homeless Executive and officials from the local authority tomorrow to manage a proper pathway for those people affected in terms of how we will deal with this to make sure that, if we can, not one family will fall into emergency accommodation but can be accommodated directly into a new home. We are taking a proactive stance on this issue and this is thanks to Deputy Ó Broin bringing it to our attention in the first instance and the work of my officials in recognising the situation those tenants are facing.

Pat Casey (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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I do not know the full history of this case but how can something like that happen today? A developer can manage to build 44 apartments for which there was no planning permission and which did not meet building standards.

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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In terms of the sequence of events, for Deputy Casey's information, a planning application was submitted and approved for 27 units in 2016. A revised planning application was submitted in 2017 to amend that to 48 units. That application was rejected and appealed to An Bord Pleanála but it appears that during the period of time the appeal has taken, which was approximately six months, the developer in question built and tenanted 44 of those units. Building control amendment regulations, BCAR, compliance certification was not received by the local authority at any stage, neither commencements, disability, fire or completion certificates. My understanding is that South Dublin County Council has inspected the premises and there are no fire safety concerns at this point, therefore, there is not an immediate evacuation concern. On the face of it, it appears the developer built and tenanted the building and did not comply with any of the building or planning regulations. An Bord Pleanála's ruling, while it is short, creates real issues in that there is a significant number of units which, according to its ruling, are not compliant with ceiling heights, numbers of units, size of rooms, etc., and the local authority now has to fulfil its statutory obligation in terms of the planning enforcement.

Pat Casey (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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A building with 44 apartment units was built without planning permission and nobody was aware of it.

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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A building had permission and often one relies on the close attention of people who are launching objections to the application. I am interested in this, having not yet heard how the additional units came to the attention of the planning authority. Was it through the planning authority's own work?

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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No. My understanding is the building is not new but a conversion of an existing building. We had all seen works happening but they related to a conversion. It came to our attention in the first instance because housing applicants in South Dublin County Council's list wanted to take up regular tenancies and applied for the housing assistance payment, HAP. When they applied for that, South Dublin County Council, in doing due diligence, checked the building and at that point realised there was no completion certificates. At that point a planning concern was raised. The Bord Pleanála decision was pending so people were taking a relatively sensible approach, waiting for that to come out, and it came out last week. The difficulty is it does not look like any of the 44 units are built in compliance with the 2016 planning approval. I have had conversations with planning officials and I am trying to find my way around them. Some units may be in compliance with the approval.

Under the enforcement regulations, South Dublin County Council has written to the developer and has given 28 days to reply. We will have to wait and see whether the individual applies for retention or amended retention. The difficulty is that as of last week, when the residents found out, they had assumed they would be on the street within hours and there was a degree of panic. We have done much work to reassure them but there are complicating factors in the sense that people are from multiple local authorities, including some outside of Dublin. Some people are not on housing lists but could be. That is a process that must be looked at. At least ten of the households have notices to quit because their HAP applications were refused. I know that is one of the issues that will be discussed at the meeting tomorrow.

There are people there from the Dublin Regional Homeless Executive homeless placefinder service and they need some reassurance that if they identify alternative private rental accommodation in the upcoming period, they can transfer the homeless HAP and deposit into the new properties. That is technically not permissible under normal rules but they clearly do not apply. We also have five or six private rent pairs who have paid considerable sums - in some cases, a deposit of three months and rent in advance - and they are now wondering if they will get those deposits back. Threshold representatives were at the meeting last night to advise those residents. It is very complicated. If the local authorities that might have some tangential involvement is not at the meeting tomorrow, correspondence should be forwarded to it. I spoke to Marguerite in the HAP section of the Department today about that. If staff at the front line of local authorities are apprised of this as quickly as possible, individuals ringing in could be given advice relevant to this situation rather than the standard policy advice. We do not want much confusion in an already difficult set of circumstances.

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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I hope tomorrow's meeting will put us in that position.

Maria Bailey (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister for his indulgence.