THE LEGACY OF
CELTIC TIGER BUILDING FAILURES Sinn Féin TD writes about his new book Defects, Living with the Legacy of the Celtic Tiger BY EOIN Ó BROIN Tonight and every night across the state, tens of thousands of families will sleep in defective homes. In Donegal, Mayo, and other western counties, entire houses are literally crumbling to the ground, with defective blocks. In almost every county, there are owners of apartments and duplexes living in properties with significant fire safety and structural defects. During the heady days of the Celtic Tiger an unknown number of homes were badly built or built with defective materials. How did this happen? Who is responsible? Who will foot the bill? Could this happen again? These are the questions that I set out to address in my new book 'Defects, Living with the Legacy of the Celtic Tiger'. The book tells the story of five families and their struggle with latent defects. From Priory Hall in North Dublin to Brú na Sionna in Co Clare, the tragedy and trauma of owning a defective home is laid bare. The book also names the developers and building contractors responsible. In many cases, they are household names like Tom McFeely, Michael Stanley and Bernard McNamara, all of whom are still involved in the building trade today. 'Defects' also tells the story, for the first time, of the politicians who put in place the light touch building regulations that allowed developers and builders get away with such shoddy work. In the 1960s, as overcrowded tenements in Dublin were collapsing, the then Fianna Fáil Government passed an important piece of legislation. The Local Government (Planning and Development) Act of 1963 was the most comprehensive reform of the planning system since the foundation of the state. Buried near the end of the Bill was a small 22
provision empowering the Minister to introduce a state-wide building control regime, to set and enforce standards to ensure all new buildings would be safe. A draft building control scheme was put out for consultation at the end of the 60s and the Government published a revised plan in 1976. It proposed a Local Authority-led independent inspection regime for all new buildings. The proposal was trashed by both the Construction Industry Federation and the industry body representing architects, engineers, and surveyors.
Justice Keane’s criticisms of the Government’s failure to introduce a building control regime was damning
• Named and shamed: Tom McFeely, Michael Stanley and Bernard McNamara
The following year, the Law Reform Commission, concerned with the issue of defective buildings, published a report calling for a legal duty to be placed on builders to build properly. This too was attacked by the construction sector. Cowed by the industry lobby, Government threw the draft building control regime in the bin and there it stayed until 48 people lost their lives in the Stardust fire on Valentine’s night in 1981. The report of the Tribunal of Enquiry established by the Government has been rightly criticised for effectively exonerating the owners of the nightclub. Justice Keane’s criticisms of the Government’s failure to introduce a building control regime was damning. Indeed, Keane went so far as to say if key pro-
ISSUE NUMBER 3 – 2021 - UIMHIR EISIÚNA 3 anphoblacht
