David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

This Adjournment matter concerns a housing estate in Kill in County Waterford, where serious fire safety defects have been found in recent times. It is one of the many housing estates built during the Celtic tiger period, where fire safety defects were found because of problems with the development, poor and lax planning and regulation laws, and a lack of enforcement and compliance.

I will give the Minister some background on this issue. The housing estate in question was built during the Celtic tiger years. The local authority got some stock under the Part V mechanism so there were some social and affordable housing units in the possession of Waterford City and County Council. A portion of the houses were sold so there are some private home owners. The remaining unsold housing units ended up in NAMA because the developer went into receivership. It was only when NAMA sold on a number of the unsold units to a voluntary housing association, which got a surveyor in to survey the properties, that serious fire safety defects were found in a number of their homes. Luckily for the voluntary housing association, they were able to renegotiate the price they were going to pay for the houses to cover the costs of remediation. The local authority then had to be notified that this could be a problem in all the houses in the estate.

The local authority, which is Waterford City and County Council, was made aware of the defects and employed a chartered fire engineer to carry out a survey. The fire safety compliance survey carried out by the council highlighted areas of concern in the dwellings with regard to internal fire spread between dwellings. I have the survey here and I will give the Minister some examples of areas of deficiency. The survey noted that on the attic party wall the plasterboard was not properly jointed, reducing the integrity of the party wall. Cavity barriers, where provided, were not fixed properly or were loosely fitted causing sagging and gaps. The cavity closers were missing to the top of external walls. The firestop was missing at the top of the party wall between the cavity closer and roof felt.

It goes on to make five priority recommendations which it asks the local authority to implement in the carrying out of remedial works on the properties. The local authority implemented those at a cost to the taxpayer. The problem is that the private home owners have been left high and dry, as has happened in many of the high-profile cases we have seen in Dublin and elsewhere in recent years. That is unacceptable.

The difficulty in this instance is that the developer is in receivership. There is no legal recourse for these private home owners. They are being told that all they can do is notify the receiver. The local authority has engaged with them but they have been told that all it can do is give them advice. It cannot carry out remedial works because they are private houses.

I have a number of questions for the Minister of State. Does he agree this highlights a lack of standards, regulation and enforcement of regulations in the building of houses? How is it that Waterford City and County Council did not identify these defects when it gained possession of the social and affordable units under the Part V mechanism? That is extraordinary as well. Is it the Minister of State's intention to move towards fully independent mandatory planning inspections such as we have in the North of Ireland? We do not have those here. Why not? Will the Minister of State amend legislation to ensure that if it transpires that developers have not met their statutory obligations, they are held fully accountable and liable? Where a developer is found not to be in compliance and goes into receivership in terms of one company with respect to one housing estate but then sets up a different company and engages in further development, will the Minister of State ensure they cannot hide behind a corporate veil?

The response of the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government to a parliamentary question on this issue was extraordinary. He stated, "As Minister I have no function in assessing, checking or testing compliance or otherwise of specific works or developments." It is an embarrassment that the Minister has no function whatsoever in these areas. Does he want functions in these areas? Does he want to have responsibility? He should want to have responsibility. What action will the Government take to ensure mandatory inspections take place, that we approve the regulations and that in the future the Minister will have responsibility to deal with these issues?

See this speech in context