Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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It is quite useful in advance of our meeting with the Department. This is one particular facility. We are being given information that we do not generally see. Members will remember that the residents' association wrote to the committee. It was dissatisfied with the response and made the point that this is public money, that procurement rules were not properly followed, etc. I reiterate that this is not an issue between the residents' association and the people who are housed in this facility. There are few issues between the residents and the residents of that house. It is about issues around that.

We have quite a sizeable amount of information and some of it is quite alarming. One of the issues the residents complained about related to planning issues. A closure notice was issued by the local authority on foot of there either being inadequate fire safety or an inadequate fire assessment. The fire assessment is included in the correspondence. The assessment report relates to Ryevale House. It states that the stable block outbuildings will be dealt with by means of a separate fire assessment. The report refers to the fact that the house had been in operation as a bed-sit and guesthouse since before 1993. That is factually incorrect and the Department must know that. This should have required a planning application and the Department of housing confirmed that to me and to one of our colleagues. It was confirmed that planning permission was required because it is a protected building. Any material changes to the inside of a protected building would require permission. The house was never used as a guesthouse. One of the outbuildings was used as an Airbnb, but not the house itself. This house was built in the 1760s. There were issues when people were in the building for six months and those issues necessitated the local authority providing a closure notice as a result of an inadequate fire assessment. That was rectified some week later on foot of that action by the local authority. The interesting piece is the inspection report we have been given for Ryevale House. We are told in the document that each of the facilities where people are housed is inspected. This is the information that will be useful for the committee's meeting with the Department. Our understanding is-----