Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I believe - I hope the Minister does too - that the primary responsibility of the Government must be to look after those who most need help and the vulnerable. There is little doubt that the Priory Hall residents were very vulnerable. They can be forgiven for feeling that the State has let them down. The local authority has also played a significant role in this matter due to the lack of enforcement of building regulations. The level of enforcement today has not improved. There is nothing wrong with our building regulations. The problem, however, is with the lack of enforcement. I know of developments that have not hit the news yet which are in the hands of the National Asset Management Agency, NAMA, but cannot be sold as they are serious fire hazards. There are cases of estates in which people are living where there is no access for a fire engine. The Government will have to set up a template for how it will deal with problems like Priory Hall because there will be more cases emerging and we need to ensure it will not take two and a half years to resolve them.

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