Joe Carey (Clare, Fine Gael)
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Question 973: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government if legislation will be brought forward, similar to that introduced in New South Wales, Australia, to ensure that every home in this State has a working smoke alarm; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39021/09]

Michael Finneran (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fianna Fail)
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The Fire Services Act 1981 provides that it is the duty of every person having control over premises to take all reasonable measures to guard against the outbreak of fire on the premises and to ensure, as far as is reasonably practicable, the safety of persons on the premises in the event of an outbreak of fire.

The Housing (Standards for Rented Houses) Regulations 2008, with effect from 1 February 2009, prescribe minimum standards for rented accommodation. Article 11 sets out the requirements in respect of fire safety and requires that where the house is located in a multi-unit building, it must have a mains-wired smoke alarm. All common areas within a multi-unit building must be provided with emergency lighting linked to the fire alarm system. Rented houses that do not form part of a multi-unit building must have either a mains-wired smoke alarm or at least two 10 year self-contained battery operated smoke alarms.

The Technical Guidance Document relating to Part B of the Building Regulations on fire safety covers fire safety in buildings including fire detection and alarm systems. It requires newly constructed houses to have mains operated smoke alarms and a recent revision of Part B introduced the requirement that a heat detector be installed in the kitchen and a smoke alarm in the living room. My Department will be reviewing the Technical Guidance Document B in 2010.

My Department organises an annual National Fire Safety Week in October each year, in conjunction with the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service. This year's theme was "Working Smoke Alarms Save Lives" and a media campaign, which includes television and radio, press, online and outdoor advertising, is in progress and will run until February 2010. The Department's fire safety awareness campaigns emphasise the importance of working smoke alarms, including the battery life in alarms.

The Fire Services Change Programme 2005 to 2007 addressed key priority areas of change in the fire service including the development of community fire safety programmes. The programmes include the "Safety Team" pack primary schools programme, which is delivered by local firefighters around the country and educates third class primary school pupils about fire safety. The Community Smoke Alarm Scheme 2007/2008 was a two year Community Fire Safety initiative, aiming to target the 20% of households in Ireland that do not have smoke alarms fitted. Local authorities, with the assistance of the voluntary sector, identified households where there were no smoke alarms and arranged for the supply and installation of two ten-year self-contained smoke alarms. The cost of these alarms was recouped to the local authorities by the Department. A Pilot Scheme was extended to 10 local authority areas in 2006. Up to 3,000 homes benefited under the Pilot Scheme and sufficient alarms to benefit 17,800 households were purchased by local authorities under the two year scheme. The Scheme has been very successful and it has continued this year.