Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Taoiseach might acquire clear-vision goggles.

This morning I spoke to a young working mother with two children. She works hard and her priority is putting her two kids through school and college. In 2009 one of her dreams came true when she bought an affordable home in Longboat Quay here in Dublin. Last night she learned to her horror that she may be evacuated from her home within a week. Not just her and her two children, but all of the 299 families that live in Longboat Quay may have to move out. Why is that? The reason is that their homes are firetraps. Built at the height of the boom by Bernard McNamara and the Dublin Docklands Development Authority, Longboat Quay has been plagued with problems for years. Remedial work carried out to date has cost the docklands authority €1.2 million. Owners have now been told they have to pay up to €18,000 each to make their homes safe, or they will have move out. The total cost of the required fire safety works is €4 million.

The woman I was speaking to and her neighbours paid anything between €250,000 and €600,000 for their homes but they were not built properly. They do not meet fire safety standards, yet the developer, the builders, the architects and the planning authority will not be penalised and it is the owners who are being asked to foot the bill. Bernard McNamara, meanwhile, having run up debts of €2 billion during the boom, is now, I understand, debt free and back in the property business.

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