Government ‘dragging its heels’ on apartment defect redress details, campaigners say

Campaigners have criticised the Government for “dragging its heels” on a commitment to provide funding for emergency fire safety works, as part of a scheme costing up to €2.5 billion to address defects in up to 100,000 Celtic Tiger-era apartments.

In January Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien received approval for a major scheme, estimated to cost €1.5 billion to €2.5 billion, to repair fire safety and other issues in the homes.

The decision had followed a lengthy campaign by property owners in affected developments, who had been left facing huge bills to cover the cost of remediating the buildings to make them safe.

In a press conference on Wednesday, the Not Our Fault redress campaign criticised delays in officials setting up a mechanism for apartment owners to apply for emergency funding for immediate works.

Q&A: How will scheme to fund repairs to defective apartments work?

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Barbara Allen, who owns an apartment in Hunterswood, southwest Dublin, said it still felt like property owners in defective homes had been put on “the longest finger” by the Department of Housing.

“We did everything that we should have done when we bought our apartments and duplexes, we had all the right searches done, we had all the right surveys done, as far as we were aware these were good properties,” she said.

“I know I live in a tinderbox ... If it goes up for any reason I have basically no way out,” she said. “We need to fix certain things now, down the road isn’t good enough,” she said.

Sam Doran, an apartment owner in the Crescent building, Park West, Dublin 12, said campaigners were promised emergency funding would be provided to “safeguard” people living in apartment blocks with fire-safety issues.

This would include work on emergency exits and fire-stopping in areas like corridors, to ensure people could get out in the event of a fire, he said.

The Government had known about fire-safety issues in Celtic Tiger-era developments since the Priory Hall development was evacuated in 2011, he said.

[ Q&A: How will scheme to fund repairs to defective apartments work? ]

Odette Doran, who also lives in the Park West development, said property owners were being “left in limbo” waiting for the details of the redress scheme.

Apartment owners with fire-safety or other defects in their homes felt like they were given “false hope” at the start of the year, she said.

“People are still living with the fear that at any moment there could be a tragedy in one of these buildings through the Government dragging their heels,” she said.

A department spokesman said work was underway to draft legislation to cover the “scope, eligibility and conditions” of the redress scheme.

“While the Minister is working on the development of the scheme as a matter of priority, sufficient time is required to draft the legislation to ensure that the scheme is fit for purpose, provides value for taxpayer’s money and contains appropriate oversight and governance measures,” he said.

The spokesman said it was intended the scheme would be in place by next year.