Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independents 4 Change) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Ó Broin for bringing this important Private Members' motion to the Dáil. I welcome all the groups in the Public Gallery. I will refer to an email from a constituent who lives in the Tramyard apartments in Inchicore. As an apartment owner, she has been asked to pay an initial €7,000 for essential fire safety remedial works by the end of November, which was only a few days ago. She states the full cost of the necessary remedial works will be €25,000 over a four- or five-year period. What a burden to put on her shoulders when she had no part to play in it. That is just one example of the situation faced by the tens of thousands of people who live in the estimated 100,000 apartments affected by defects such as fire safety issues, structural defects and water ingress.

This is one of the many national scandals to emerge from the Celtic tiger era of light-touch regulation or, indeed, non-implementation of whatever regulations existed, corner-cutting and whatever could be got away with to maximise profits. The people who did not party have already footed the bill for the bank bailout and will be faced with the bills for the pyrite scandals and this particular bill for construction defects of between €1.5 billion and €2.5 billion and possibly much more.

The responsibility for this situation lies with the Fianna Fáil, Progressive Democrats, Fine Gael and Green Party Governments of the period, which failed in their responsibility to provide proper regulation, oversight and inspection of the building of these apartments and duplexes. Responsibility also lies with the construction industry for corner-cutting and shoddy work practices. It should be made to accept responsibility, as recommended by the Construction Defects Alliance, by paying a 2% tax on profits for at least ten years.

The Government must respond urgently to a situation whereby up to 100,000 inhabited apartments and duplexes are potential fire hazards. We do not want to have a Grenfell Tower scenario in this country. We need the immediate implementation of interim measures, namely, State funding to upgrade fire and smoke alarms and sensors in bedrooms, funding for fire wardens to help with evacuations, especially during night-time, and funding of emergency grants for urgent remediation works pending the establishment of a remediation support scheme. With regard to any such remediation support scheme, all necessary work should be fully funded up-front by the State, with cost recovery measures imposed on the construction industry. Those who have had to pay towards remediation works should be fully compensated. Owners' management companies must be given hands-on State support by a body such as the Pyrite Resolution Board. This requires legislation.

While this is a complex and costly issue, the people living with this problem, who are in no way responsible for it, must not be left waiting for two, five or ten years for a scheme to address it. These scandals should never be allowed to happen again. Complete reliance on the private sector to provide affordable and safe housing has been a disastrous failure. The State must step up and play the key role in providing homes, including via a State construction company.

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