Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I wish to return to the issue of insulation and sound-proofing of walls. A flat concrete block with plaster on both sides will not necessarily pass the sound-proofing test, because a concrete block is only five Newton in strength, whereas a person building a wall uses 35 Newton concrete. One can build a wall with double slabbing and insulation that will give better sound-proofing than a concrete block on the flat, but a concrete block on the flat is of course better. This has nothing to do with the Bill, but the point I am making is that the regulations were not being applied. If apartments have walls where the person next door can be heard, the building was not done right and was not tested.

A wall of nine inch concrete blocks on the flat I built was tested in 2006, but it did not pass the sound-proofing test, although it had 20 mm of plaster on both sides of it. I had to add an inch batten and another slab on both sides for it to pass the test. That is how good the test is. Following that, we only built nine inch solid concrete walls, with reinforced 35 Newton concrete. That is the perfect job for fire and sound-proofing. It is a brilliant job and the Government should apply that standard. While it is expensive, it would be great if it was done everywhere. It is the right way to build a party wall.

Many issues have been raised here. One of these relates to ceiling height. The average ceiling height for a three-bedroomed house is 8 ft. and the same average applies to apartments. My argument is that 8 ft. is not adequate for apartments, because apartments have a more feeling cramped than a house. For example, apartments are either single or dual aspect, while a house is three or four. There is a much greater sense of air and space in a house than in an apartment. In Europe, 10 ft. or 11 ft. high ceilings are not abnormal. Ceiling height I would use is 2.7 m which is just under 9 ft. This would make an incredible difference and would not change the price significantly.

I understand this presents a huge challenge to developers. If a developer is allowed build four floors of apartments at a ceiling height of 2.4 m, and the slab is 300 mm, this means the height of the floor is 2.7 m. Four such floors would give a total of 10.8 m, plus a roof. If the Government decided all ceiling heights should be 9 ft., 2.7 m, it should give developers the extra air height and allow the development go a bit higher. In the case of five floors, we are talking about going up an extra 1.5 m. This makes sense because if a developer goes to a bank to seek backing for building an apartment complex with five floors at 8 ft. ceilings, but then goes to the local authority to seek permission for a 9 ft. ceiling and permission to go 1.2 m higher, but permission is refused, he is forced back to an 8 ft. ceiling because he will not have the finance otherwise. The local authorities should give on that. We do not build high enough in Dublin.

In the early 1990s, we were building four floor blocks, a commercial ground floor with three residential floors above it. Zoe built most of such blocks in the city centre at the time. Then we increased to five floors and then six. In European cities, ten floor blocks are quite regular. As other Deputies have said, if we do not want to cover the country in concrete, we will have to move towards far more apartment living. However, we must do it better. These amendments seek to introduce minimum standards in order to ensure that and to guarantee future apartment building will be better.

The Minister of State has said our amendments are inflexible. They are not minor amendments. They are good standards and, therefore, can be inflexible for a long time. If we want to build even bigger and higher apartment blocks in ten years' time, it will not be the end of the world if we have to go back to change the legislation. These standards will be good for a long time and we will not have to go back and change them next year or the year after. We could live with them for a long time.

I believe if we want to build good living spaces in apartments, an extra foot in ceiling height is enormous and makes a bigger difference than anything else. Apartments are cramped spaces to live in when ceilings are low. This is something that is not felt in a house. I do not see a demand for a greater ceiling height than 8 ft. for houses as important as it is for an apartment. This is an issue the Government should think about. It need not cost builders a fortune to achieve this, provided local authorities can live with the fact that the building will be higher overall.

The Minister spoke about lifts and the provision of one lift for six or eight apartments with which I fully agree. The notion there should be only four apartments for each lift is crazy.

It requires a good standard of lift and the lift company to stand over the fact that the lift can serve eight apartments. I have zero problem with that.

The Minister of State touched on on-site oversight, and we agree on that. To move slightly away from the Bill, I have talked about how I expect only 50% of people in Ireland to live in their own properties in the years to come and about the fact that we will need much more local authority and social housing. I disagree very strongly with the principle of selling social housing.

See this speech in context