Seán Kenny (Dublin North East, Labour)

I support what my colleague said. The city council recently commissioned Hayes Higgins Partnership, consulting engineers, to carry out an investigation into defects in the construction of Priory Hall. This investigation is complete and I call on the council to publish the report by Hayes Higgins Partnership in the public interest. The case against Mr. McFeely and Mr. O'Mahoney for breaches of fire regulations was heard in the District Court on 4 April. Mr. McFeely received a €3,000 fine and a six-month suspended sentence and Mr. O'Mahoney received a €1,000 fine and a one-month suspended sentence. Since then there has been a spate of fires in the dumping area used by the building company, which is an unsecured area situated behind hoarding at the back of the development. I am advised by constituents that there were three fires in total, two of which Dublin Fire Brigade and the Garda attended and one which residents put out themselves. Two members of the residents' committee advised me that they reported the last fire incident to Coolock Garda station.

Dublin City Council's chief fire officer directed that both underground car parks in the development be taken out of use in December 2009 due to flooding. The car parks remain closed to date, with the result that there is a high volume of vehicles on the road outside the apartment blocks, many of which are parked in front of the hoarding that fronts the builder's dumping area, thus compounding the risk of any fire spreading and of explosions from the vehicles' petrol tanks. My grave concern is that if the hoarding was to catch fire again, the fire could spread to the north and south blocks of the development and the petrol could ignite the fire further. We would be faced with casualties that could be avoided.

I asked Dublin City Council whether the three fires in April constituted a breach of the developers' suspended sentences and I was advised by the council's law agent that any complaints on possible breaches should be communicated to the superintendent of the local Garda station. On 16 June, I wrote to the Garda superintendent in Coolock, asking him to investigate the position in Priory Hall with a view bring the matter back before the court if the fires constitute breaches of the suspended sentences, as I believe they do. It would seem to me that if the position remains the same in this development, it is only a matter of time before there is a serious incident. I ask the Minister to intervene with Dublin City Council to have this absolute nightmare for residents, which has been going on for years, brought to a conclusion.

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