Seán Haughey (Dublin Bay North, Fianna Fail)
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225. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills when his attention was drawn to fire safety concerns in schools (details supplied); the actions being taken to rectify this situation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39240/17]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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On 1 September my Department announced that it is publishing a public tender notice on the Governments e-tenders website to commission fire safety audits of a representative sample of up to 25 schools constructed over the last 20 years.

The tender for appointment of fire safety consultants will be completed by the mid October. It is expected that the first set of Fire Safety Audit Reports will be provided to the Department by the end of December 2017.

This is part of a process being undertaken as an added precaution by the Department of Education and Skills, prompted by recent concerns in Ireland and abroad regarding fire safety in public buildings. It is intended to give the Department a clear picture of whether there are any issues arising in respect of compliance with fire safety certificates in school building projects completed in the past 20 years or currently under construction.

On 1st September my Department also published fire safety reports for five school buildings constructed in 2008, including the school in question, where issues had been identified in respect of the compliance with their fire safety certificates.

These Fire safety reports were completed in July 2016. The findings of the reports indicated issues of insufficient compliance with some requirements of the fire safety certificates in relation to fire retardation in those buildings. The reports found that while the designs which underpinned the Fire Safety Certificates required that the buildings would provide 60 minutes of retardation to facilitate evacuation, the actual quality of construction indicated a level of retardation less than this.

It is important to note that this is not a finding that the buildings are dangerous, it is a finding that the buildings do not comply with the detailed requirements of the Fire Safety Certificates.

It is also important to note that in the case of each of the schools, the Department has engaged extensively with the Fire Officers of the relevant Local Authorities. The Fire Officers have broadly welcomed the Department’s proactive approach to dealing with the issues highlighted and have indicated their acceptance of the course of action being followed by the Department, including the identified remediation works and the fact that the schools continue to be occupied on a day-to-day basis.

The background to the Fire Safety Reports has been outlined in the Press Statement on 1 September with the publication of the report. In October 2015, following the issues that arose in respect of Rush/Lusk ETNS, the Department made arrangements for the procurement of fire safety inspections of the five schools constructed in 2008.

A Consultant was appointed to carry out the fire inspection audits of the schools. The initial fire safety investigations were carried out in January 2016. Draft Fire Reports were prepared in March 2016. In order to complete the reports it was necessary for the Fire Consultant to gather further information on the buildings including compliance reports, drawings etc. and to conduct further investigations and site visits. The Final Reports were received in July 2016.

The Department met with WBS and their Architectural Consultant in June 2016. It was agreed at the meeting that WBS would liaise with the Departments Consultant’s and would carry out the required works in the relevant schools.

In August 2016 WBS advised that the priority works (i.e. immediate essential improvement works) had been carried out at the schools. Despite a number of requests by the Department, photographic reports and commentary on the works were sought following the works in August but information was not received until late September and early October 2016. The Department’s Consultant issued a commentary on the information to WBS on 25th November 2016 expressing concerns.

In January 2017 the Department’s Project Managers advised WBS that following their reports in relation to the remedial works at the schools, commentary received from the Fire Consultant had suggested that the reports provided did not address the original Fire Consultant reports in their entirety. They were requested to provide reference photographs for each item deemed to be attended to and for any items not yet completed to include a reason for not addressing and a proposed date for attending to same.

Further site visits to the schools were carried out by the Fire Consultant in March/April 2017. This was a visual inspection of the previously advised completed items by the Fire Consultant. The Draft Report which was received from the Fire Consultant in May 2017 following this visit concluded that very little upgrade works which were previously advised had actually been carried out. Where works were carried out they were not to a satisfactory standard and there were issues identified within the Fire Consultant’s report of July 2016 which had not been addressed.

While it had been the Department’s understanding that WBS had carried out the works in summer 2016 which had been highlighted in the Fire Consultant reports as being most urgent and important, it became apparent following review by the Fire Consultant that this was not in fact the case.

On 5 May 2017 the Department met with WBS to discuss the findings of the reports of May 2017. WBS committed to visiting the schools in week commencing 8th May to review.

Since that date the progress in respect of the schools in question is as follows.

On 12th May 2017, the Department and its Consultants along with Consultants representing WBS met with the relevant Fire Officer, to discuss the schools. Copies of the Fire consultant reports were provided. The Fire Officer was advised of the project to build larger permanent schools to replace the temporary schools by the end of 2018.

A detailed proposal on works proposed and conformity on the compartmentation of the building was submitted to the Fire Officer by Western Building Systems Fire Safety Consultant on 8th August.

Remediation works on the Fire Doors commenced on Tuesday 29th August. WBS has confirmed that the remedial works to all fire doors in both schools was completed by Wednesday 30th August.

WBS further advised the Department that the enhancements to the fire stopping and the remedial work required to the fire collar fixings as well as the intumescent paint works would be carried out as weekend works in September.

The current position is that works have now been completed and arrangements are being made for the works to be inspected jointly by the Department’s and WBS Consultants and a report will be submitted to the Fire Officer.

Regarding the schools new permanent accommodation, the building project for this is at tender stage. The tender assessment report has been received in the Department and is currently under review.