Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I am going to speak now.

It is not possible to put into words the sheer horror of the inferno that engulfed the lives of maybe as many as 80 innocent people in the Grenfell Tower in London. It is emerging now that not only were people burned alive in that inferno but many of them were poisoned by cyanide released from the combustible material that was used to clad that building. What is now becoming increasingly apparent is that this is not simply a huge humanitarian and personal tragedy but it is an absolute scandal and outrage. It is not an exaggeration to say that what happened in Grenfell was murder by negligence, murder by austerity, murder by cutbacks, murder by inequality and murder resulting from utter contempt for the well-being of the less well off in British society.

The Grenfell Action Group, the residents association, warned several times in the two years preceding this tragedy that the tower was an accident waiting to happen.

In November last year, in prophetic words, they said, "It is a truly terrifying thought, but the Grenfell action group firmly believe that only a catastrophic event will expose the ineptitude and incompetence of our landlord", the housing association managed by Kensington and Chelsea Borough Council. As well as extending our solidarity to people, the question for us is could Grenfell happen here and are we prepared to ensure that it does not? We have had warnings from Kevin Hollingsworth, quantity surveyor and expert in this area, from Dublin Fire Brigade and other fire experts, all saying categorically that Grenfell could happen here.

Kevin Hollingsworth has said that 40% of the multi-occupancy units built during the period of the Celtic tiger are fire hazards. Fire expert, Noel Manning, says that the building regulations which were updated this year have completely ignored the warnings of fire consultants, that the regulations themselves are defective and can produce the sort of chimney effect that we saw in Grenfell because they do not have proper fire resistance because they do not provide for proper fire resistance between units in multiple-occupancy buildings. We have the scandal of self-certification when buildings are being designed and constructed and we have no inspection whatever of buildings that may be unsafe. What is the Government going to do about this to ensure we do not have a repeat of the utter tragedy and outrage of Grenfell?

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