Paul Murphy warns hundreds at risk from fire-safety defects
Paul Murphy raised a crisis facing hundreds of apartment and duplex owners in Dublin South West over fire-safety construction defects, saying residents face restricted access and could be charged €15,000 per unit. He said owners did not know about the defects when they bought and called them victims of self-certification and poor regulation, urging a redress scheme.
Crisis in Dublin South West
Paul Murphy described a major housing complex where common areas have been closed by a fire officer and apartment and duplex owners risk being locked out of their homes due to construction-related fire safety defects.
Financial burden on owners
He said owners are being told each apartment or duplex will have to pay 15,000 euros to remedy the issues, a sum many simply cannot afford. Murphy stressed that this financial demand falls on people who were unaware of defects when they purchased their homes.
Causes identified by the speaker
Murphy blamed an era of self-certification, poor regulation and shoddy practices for leaving residents exposed. He characterised affected owners as victims rather than responsible parties.
Government response and working group
The minister said he established a working group on fire defects for apartments, which has included resident representatives such as the Apartment Owners Network and the Construction Defects Alliance. The minister said the working group produced Terms of Reference, a report is expected shortly, and the government will consider actions once the report is received.
Scope of the review and next steps
The minister noted the process has been extensive, with over 28,000 submissions received and described it as the widest survey of defects in apartments. He said he will keep the house informed of progress as the report is brought to government.
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I want to raise a crisis situation facing hundreds of apartment and duplex owners in a major housing complex in Dublin South West because of fire safety defects in terms of construction they are potentially being faced from being locked out from accessing their apartments with the common areas being closed down by the fire officer and they are being told that each apartment and duplex owner will have to pay 15,000 euros to remedy these issues the truth is that for many people they simply don't have that money that simply is not possible this is not their fault it's not the fault of others who are in similar circumstances to them across Dublin and across the country they didn't know when they bought their apartments they couldn't possibly have known they are the victims of an era of self-certification and poor regulation and shoddy practices the state has stepped in we need to have a redress at scheme to enable the work is it's for the Senhor , well firstly I'd say of course that it's not the apartment owners fault and deputy I'm assuming your aware that I established a working group on fire defects for Apartment which has been working over the course of the last year included in that have been most importantly the residents represented by apartment owners network and the Construction Defects Alliance, they put together the Terms of Reference that wasn't influenced by me I'm expecting the report actually very shortly take this issue very very seriously it is not residents or apartment owners fault government will consider the report when I receive it when I bring it to government as what action we can take to help home homeowners in this space but this has been a very extensive process over 28,000 as submissions received to us so we have the widest submissions and widest survey of the type of defects within these apartments that that we have within the report I'll keep the house informed of progress
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