Dublin West TD and Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth Roderic O’Gorman says he welcomes new Government legislation which will support repairs of Celtic Tiger-era apartments and duplexes with fire safety, structural safety and water ingress defects.
This will be of significant importance to many families across Dublin 15, who bought their apartments during the Celtic Tiger and subsequently established that their apartments had serious defects.
A ‘whole building’ approach will be taken, ensuring common areas and shared spaces are also remediated where required to the relevant standard.
It is envisaged that the Housing Agency will play a central role in the administration of the scheme and that Owners’ Management Companies will be funded to carry out the necessary remediation works, with specific limitations or exemptions on certain commercial owners.
In order to ensure that important life-safety works are not paused, the Government has also decided that remediation works related to fire safety defects, entered into or commenced from today, will form part of the remediation scheme, subject to terms and conditions.
Such works will need to be agreed with local authority Fire Services and the details of this process will be worked out as a priority and provided in due course.
Government have approved the principle of allowing remediation costs already incurred or levied to be covered under the legacy defects scheme, within the scope and defined parameters of said scheme.
Following the Government meeting, Minister Roderic O’Gorman TD said:
“We know that several apartment blocks constructed in Dublin 15 and Dublin 7 during the Celtic Tiger era have significant defects, causing stress for the owners, putting them in financial difficulty and, most importantly, impacting on the safety of those who live there.
Apartment owners have been raising concerns with me about these defects since I became a local Councillor in 2014, and I have continued to highlight these issues with Government colleagues since elected as TD for Dublin West.
“I am pleased that today the Government approved the drafting of a scheme that will protect the safety and welfare of those living in these apartments, as well as ensure those who have already incurred remediation costs are included within the scheme.
“The Green Party has been advocating for a scheme like this for years, and for improved building controls to prevent families facing similar difficulties in the future.”