Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

There is a certain irony that we are discussing this report during the week in which the Grenfell Tower inquiry opened. There was horrific loss of life in that appalling fire. I do not think it is any exaggeration to say that we are incredibly lucky that something similar has not happened here because all of the same features exist. In Holywell in Swords in 2007, fire spread rapidly through cavity walls destroying six units in under half an hour. Had that fire occurred at night when people were asleep, there would undoubtedly have been casualties. The same scenario happened in Millfield in Newbridge. It is only as a result of these catastrophic problems coming to the fore and an opening up of some of the properties afterwards that we have revealed massive non-compliance in a number of areas such as Fingal, south Dublin, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, Louth, Kildare, Cork and, undoubtedly, every other local authority area that has not yet been touched by this. There were breaches of building regulations in Holywell. A fire safety examination of 22 homes found poor workmanship, breaches of fire safety and other regulations yet the developer, Albany Homes, said it was nothing to do with it, blamed the local authority, shrugged its shoulders, denied that it had ever received the report and did nothing to rectify the works. The Department's long-awaited report into the fire at Millfield, which was very weak, also revealed deficiencies that affected the spread of fire, poor workmanship, improper jointing of plasterboard to separating walls within the attic space, fire stopping missing at the top of the separating walls, cavity closers missing at the top of the external walls and penetration of separating walls within the attic with the roof timbers. These are not isolated examples. The Minister needs to be proactive in terms of establishing the extent of these legacy issues because it is only through tragedy that some of the issues about which we are aware have emerged. We must ask ourselves why this is the case. It has been touched on by the report, which I welcome.

If we look at a redress scheme like the pyrite remediation scheme, the question arises as to why it is there. It should never have been there. The State was culpable in not having a proper system of checks at the quarries. It acted improperly and had to take some of the responsibility in that regard. We have a scheme in place because residents had to go out and fight for it. In fairness, the late Shane McEntee was instrumental in delivering that scheme but it is no longer fit for purpose. It needs to be changed and the Minister is well aware of this. The defects in that scheme have been flagged. We have the scenario where householders are buckling under the pressure of damage to their property through no fault of their own.

The root of this is the lack of proper inspection. We know that the decision taken by Fianna Fáil in 1990 to abolish independent building control inspections by local authorities and allow self certification has been a disaster. However, I do not agree that the control regulations of 2014 have solved anything.

The report has been good in highlighting some of the weaknesses in that those regulations did not go far enough in tackling non-compliance. There is nothing to provide the purchaser of a house with confirmation that the builder was or is competent. It does nothing to improve the performance of contractors and nothing to improve standards of workmanship. All it does is identify someone the buyer could potentially sue later down the road if his or her life is falling apart because he or she bought a property that is buckling in that regard.

The assigned certifier is very problematic. While I welcome much of the report, we need to return to a public inspection system. The local authorities do not really have the clout to carry out that function as they have been so undermined. We need independent building control in the public arena that gives robust powers to an inspector who has no conflict of interest unlike the present assigned certifier who is paid by the developer. That person should have access to a site at any stage during construction to carry out any inspection deemed necessary, particularly regarding fire prevention and fire retardant materials as well as foundations, drainage, plumbing and so on. The inspector must have the power to stop non-compliant work and to be able to order the taking down of a building that has not complied with regulations.

Such a system requires the employment of skilled and experienced tradespeople by the local authority or another body to empower a public inspector. If we do not do this we will have a re-emergence of the problems that everybody is complaining about now and the absolutely appalling vista that the victims have to pay for the damage that has been done, which is absolutely disgraceful.

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