Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Will the Minister give a commitment to publish all these fire reports? People are worried about their safety in the event of a fire. I raised this with the Minister about a year ago when a four storey block of apartments in my constituency burnt down on a sunny Saturday afternoon. There were no injuries thankfully. However, because of the upgrade of those apartment blocks that must be done following that disastrous fire, the residents may now be charged significant amounts of money. The Minister cannot say to people who are struggling with mortgages that they have to find thousands of extra euro or get out an additional mortgage or loan to fund fire safety. I refer to the fact that they got a certificate stressing fire safety was adequate when they bought their apartment or acquired their mortgage. That has to be addressed.

We also have to look at the proposal of the Minister and his party to have high rise as the new norm in Dublin without having adequate fire safety. He must publish the fire reports from the task force he referenced. It is wrong that they are not being published. They should be available on the wall of every apartment block.

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