Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)

Some months after the scandal of the fire hazard at Priory Hall, which is causing awful hardship to the innocent residents there, another fire hazard scandal is unfolding at Belmayne, which is also on the north Dublin fringe. Kitara developers have written to hundreds of apartment owners to tell them they might have to move out of their homes for three or four days to allow fire hazards to be corrected. The issue that needs urgent Government action is the fact that the developer, Dublin City Council and the council's most senior fire authority officers are deliberately, dishonestly and seriously underestimating the extent of the fire hazards they have just acknowledged. Therefore, the extent of the construction works that will be necessary is being seriously underestimated. The unfortunate consequence for the innocent residents who are affected, some of whom paid €600,000 for their apartments, will be disruption. They are not millionaires - they are working people. The reason the risk is being underestimated is that for a full year, there has been a cover-up - unfortunately - by Dublin City Council of scandalous breaches of fire safety regulations in Belmayne.

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