Alex White (Dublin South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising the matter. An explosion occurred within a private house - one of a terrace of six houses - in the Gleann Riada development in Longford in March of this year. Subsequently, Longford County Council appointed a firm of consulting engineers, Tobin Consultants, to investigate the causes of the explosion. The specific findings of the report from Tobin Consultants have been made available to residents of the terrace in Gleann Riada, in addition to general advice which was made available to other residents of the estate. Longford County Council has established a steering group to address the range of issues faced by the occupants of the Gleann Riada development and is liaising with the other State authorities involved including, inter alia, the Health and Safety Authority.

Given that this matter is currently the subject of legal action it would be inappropriate to comment further at this time, save to note that the Minister is aware of a second explosion having occurred in this development earlier this month and is following developments in respect of this estate closely. Unfortunately, the issues faced by the residents of the Gleann Riada development are a severe example of the legacy problems this Government inherited on a national basis in regard to unfinished housing developments throughout the State.

The Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Jan O'Sullivan, is leading the Government's work on tackling this issue. She is chairing the national co-ordination committee on unfinished housing developments to oversee implementation of the report of the advisory group on unfinished housing developments, together with the Government's response to the recommendations. The committee comprises representatives from the banking sector, the local authorities, NAMA and the construction sector, as well as from the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government. The Minister, Deputy Hogan, considers that harnessing these various areas of expertise in a collaborative approach will result in the most effective resolution of the issues we face, many of which were set out by the Deputy.

Outputs from this committee so far include the preparation of a guidance manual, Managing and Resolving Unfinished Housing Developments, published in August 2011; the preparation of a key stakeholders' code of practice and a residents' guide, both published last week; overseeing a public safety initiative which provides funding support of €5 million; improved national and local co-ordination through the City and County Managers' Association; engagement and co-ordination of initiatives with NAMA; engagement with the banking sector through the Irish Banking Federation; and reviewing best practice initiatives and progress on the preparation of site resolution plans nationally. The committee is meeting on a regular basis with the aim of publishing a report on progress achieved within the next 12 months. In the meantime, work is ongoing on implementation of the report of the advisory group and real progress is already being made with regard to the public safety works required to improve the living conditions of existing residents in some unfinished estates. The Government is very much alive to the issues that have been raised by the Deputy.

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