Social Democrats Dublin Bay North Councillor Cian O’Callaghan today called for a national remediation fund for residents and homeowners affected by fire safety, construction and other structural problems in Celtic Tiger-era apartment developments in Dublin.
“The Minister for Housing says he sympathises with the people affected by structural defects in apartments built during the recent boom – but residents and home owners need more than sympathy.”
Social Democrats Dublin Bay North Councillor Cian O’Callaghan today called for a national remediation fund for residents and homeowners affected by fire safety, construction and other structural problems in Celtic Tiger-era apartment developments in Dublin.
Councillor O’Callaghan said:
“The Minister for Housing says he sympathises with the people affected by structural defects in apartments built during the recent boom. But residents and home owners need more than sympathy – they need to see the government take responsibility for problems caused by a lack of proper building standards and controls at national level.
“The Minister needs to get a grip on the situation, starting with a review of developments built during the Celtic-Tiger era to find out the extent and severity of any defects. A remediation fund, along the lines of the pyrite remediation scheme, must be established to ensure the safety and well being of thousands of people affected by this scandal.
“The government must urgently adopt the recent recommendations of the Oireachtas Housing Committee which found a significant level of non-compliance, negligence and incompetence in some Celtic Tiger era building developments.
“The failure of local authorities and the Department of Housing to come to terms with the scale of this problem and to assist residents is inexcusable. In my own Council area, Fingal County Council have spent more than one million euro remediating fire safety defects in social housing stock in a development in North County Dublin while at the same time withholding important fire safety reports from the residents in the estate. The Council also neglected to take effective enforcement action against the developer.”
ENDS
4th March 2019