Violet-Anne Wynne (Clare, Independent)
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1148.To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the regulations that are currently in place to protect tenants, including local authority tenants, from living in a property with only one exit; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33040/24]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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The minimum standards for rental accommodation are prescribed in the Housing (Standards for Rented Houses) Regulations 2019 and specify requirements in relation to a range of matters, such as structural repair, sanitary facilities, heating, natural light, fire safety, ventilation and the safety of gas, oil and electrical supplies. Responsibility for the enforcement of the Regulations in the private rental sector rests with the relevant local authority. These Regulations apply to all properties let or available for let. All landlords have a legal obligation to ensure that their rented properties comply with the standards set down in the Regulations.

The Government is committed to ensuring that a stock of high quality accommodation is available for those who live in the private rented sector. Housing for All sets a target for the inspection of 25% of all registered private residential tenancies. A total of €9 million in Exchequer funding is being made available by my Department to local authorities this year to help them meet their private rental inspection targets.

My Department’s publication Fire Safety in Flats – A guide to Fire Safety in Flats Bedsitters and Apartments (1994) provides guidance to persons having control over premises under Section 18(2) of the Fire Services Acts 1981 & 2003. Further advice and leaflets are available on .

The Building Regulations came into force on 1 June 1992 and set out the legal requirements for the construction of new buildings (including houses), extensions to existing buildings as well as for material alterations and certain material changes of use to existing buildings. As and from that date, all works to which the Building Regulations relate which are carried out, must be carried out in accordance with the Building Regulations. The aim of the Regulations is to provide for the safety and welfare of people in and about buildings.

The minimum performance requirements that a building must achieve are set out in the second schedule to the building regulations in 12 parts (classified as Parts A to M). Part B of the Second Schedule to the Building Regulations, and the accompanying Technical Guidance Documents: TGD B 2017 – Fire Safety – Volume 2 – Dwelling Houses, and TGD B 2024 – Fire Safety – Volume 1 – Buildings other than Dwelling Houses, set out the minimum provisions that will prima facie achieve compliance with Building Regulations in respect of fire safety. The Guidance includes measures relating to the availability of exits.