Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 14 October 2025

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage

Multiple Unit Developments: Discussion

2:00 am

Mr. Pat Montague:

Yes, some do not meet the current standards and some do not even meet the standards that applied when the complexes were built. To give an example, in one development in north County Dublin, they did the assessment for the emergency lighting and the fire alarms, because it is one of the pilot projects, and they found that both the lux levels for the lighting and the decibel levels for the fire alarms were both below what should have applied at the time the place was built, never mind the levels that would apply now. That is why they are going to be funded to have them replaced, but our view is that this needs to be much more widespread.

Those 50,000-odd apartments are in a similar vein. They have the issues that Mr. Doran's development and Clarion Quay have in terms of having flammable cladding on the outside. They are emergency issues. We are nearly two years into this and no grants have been issued. We need to really press on and get on with it. Mr. Lambe can talk about some of that because his development had a fire in 2023.