Aideen Hayden (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I too want to congratulate my colleague, Senator John Gilroy, on the publication of his book, A Cry in the Morning. I hope we will see many colleagues help him celebrate the launch this evening.

I also want to commend our colleague, Senator Sean Barrett, and other Members of the House on a robust debate yesterday on the Land and Conveyancing Law Reform Bill 2013, in which Senator Barrett proposed an amendment to the Bill to assist tenants living in the private rented sector where rented properties are being repossessed. The Minister, Deputy Shatter, generously offered to give the matter his consideration and revert to Senator Barrett and to the House. That is a welcome development.

I raise the issue of the findings of an inquest on a 15-month-old child who fell to her death from the sixth storey of an apartment block in Phibsborough and the comments of the Dublin Coroner, Brian Farrell, who pointed out that this was the third or fourth such incident over which he has had to preside. Just last week a two-year-old boy fell from the second floor of an apartment building in Tallaght. It is a serious matter. In 2006, 78% of all buildings that were built in the urban area of Dublin were apartment blocks. For reasons to do with the economy and the fact that many people in receipt of social welfare are living in apartment blocks, including people with children, there is a real issue about the safety of children in those apartment blocks. I ask the Leader for a debate with the Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Jan O'Sullivan, about the prospect of retrofitting some of these apartment developments with facilities for families with children, including everything from the safety of the windows and balconies to the provision of play areas, which in many of these apartment developments are lacking in their entirety. It is an important matter in terms of the way people have to live their lives.