Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein)

I welcome the reply from the Minister and the information that moves are being made. Improvements in the inspection regime are long overdue, particularly given the amount of apartment blocks that have been built in recent years. There is no single building inspectorate service. It is vital that the service includes fire safety, which is important for people living in apartments, particularly high rise blocks. For many years developers were encouraged to build and we can see the results of that now. Some of the developments are very poor. Many homes, in particular apartments, were built with minimal fire safety measures.

In one part of Dublin city 65 apartment blocks were built within the jurisdiction of the city council but it could give no commitment on an independent fire safety inspection being carried out, let alone make one public. It is time to reverse that and ensure buildings, regardless of where they are constructed, are built to a national standard with a national inspectorate and enforcement of the same standards in partnership with each local authority. Will the inspectorate be integrated into the local authority system and will it be answerable to each local authority?

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