Barry Cowen (Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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2201. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government if officials of State organisations such as local authorities or fire services are authorised or empowered to enter a dwelling and direct or impose fire safety provisions on the persons living in a premises occupied as a single dwelling if the dwelling is attached to another dwelling such as, for example, terraced houses, attached houses, duplexes and-or multi-unit apartments; and if not, his views on whether this is a serious public safety risk as demonstrated in a case (details supplied) in which there was no firewall present between attached houses. [27503/17]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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Premises consisting of a dwelling house occupied as a single dwelling are specifically excluded from the  general obligations with regard to fire safety, as well as the inspection and enforcement provisions, in Part III of the Fire Services Acts 1981 and 2003. However, the provisions of this legislation are generally taken as applicable in dwellings within multi-unit developments or mixed-use buildings. 

The Acts do not define a single dwelling and, while single dwellings are self-evident in most cases, consideration may be required on a case by case basis, and may ultimately require interpretation by the Courts. 

A single dwelling is generally taken as either a dwelling house, a flat (separate and self-contained premises constructed or adapted for residential use and forming part of a building from some other part of which it is divided horizontally) or a maisonette (a dwelling forming part of a larger building, which has its rooms divided between two or more levels which are more than half a storey height apart). 

Considerable progress has been made on enhancing the safety of occupants of dwellings through Community Fire Safety programmes and fire safety promotion over recent years, focused, in particular,  on the domestic smoke alarm campaign.  While each fire death is one too many, the annual fire death rate per million people in Ireland has been almost halved over the past 15 years, from 11.9 fire fatalities per million population on average for the years 2001 to 2003, to 6.9 on average for 2014 to 2016.

The construction standards for dwellings are covered by the Building Regulations. Part B (Fire safety) of the Regulations sets down the statutory minimum standards of fire safety provision which must be achieved when a new building, including a dwelling, is designed and constructed or when an existing building is subject to works involving an extension, a material alteration or a material change of use. This includes a requirement for adequate resistance to the spread of fire to and from neighbouring buildings. 

Technical Guidance Document B – Fire Safety provides specific guidance on construction methods to comply with this requirement. Where works are carried out in accordance with this document this will, prima facie, indicate compliance with the fire safety requirements of the Building Regulations. Compliance with the Building Regulations is the responsibility of the owners, designers and builders of the buildings or dwellings concerned.

Part B/ TGD B has recently been revised under Part B/Technical Guidance Document B - Fire Safety - Volume 2 Dwelling Houses 2017, which comes into effect on 1 July 2017.

Local authorities have extensive powers of inspection and enforcement under the Building Control Act 1990 and the Fire Services Acts 1981 and 2003, all of which may be relevant in relation to fire safety arrangements in residential buildings, other than those specifically excluded.

In the interests of supporting owners and residents living in developments such as the one referred to, where concerns regarding non-compliance with fire safety requirements arise, an independent fire safety expert has completed a review and a report on the matter has been received by my Department. The report remains under consideration pending clarification of a number of issues. Accordingly, it would be inappropriate for me to comment further on this case at this juncture.

In response to the recent tragedy at Grenfell Tower in London, I have requested that each local authority be asked, as a matter of urgency, to review their multi-storey social housing units to ensure that all early warning systems, including alarm and detection systems and means of escape including corridors, stairways and emergency exits are fully functional and in place. Life safety must be our first concern. 

In terms of raising awareness across landlords, including landlords of households in receipt of social housing supports and rental assistance, I have requested that the Residential Tenancies Board be asked to notify all landlords of their responsibilities and obligations as landlords in terms of ensuring that their properties fully comply with fire safety requirements.  

In order to remind builders, assigned certifiers, designers and owners of their obligations in relation to compliance with the Building Regulations, I have also requested that a notification be issued to all registered users (approx. 52,000) through the Building Control Management System (BCMS).

Although there are no apartment blocks in Ireland comparable to Grenfell Tower, all householders, regardless of the type of accommodation they live in, are urged to take the basic but most effective fire safety precaution of ensuring that their family’s home is protected with working smoke alarms. I have also, last week, emphasised the fire safety responsibilities of management companies more generally in control of multi-occupancy buildings and urged them to satisfy themselves that the arrangements in place are appropriate and safe.