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PRIORY HALL, RIVERBOAT quay and Riverwalk Court – the names of just some developments that have made the headlines due to massive safety concerns.
In the peak of the housing boom in 2006, 90,000 new dwellings were built and yet there were only 64 full time building control officers in the whole country to inspect all the new houses and apartments.
A TV3 documentary takes a look at the stories of some people who bought homes only to discover they weren’t safe and, in some cases, were rendered valueless.
It examines the fall-out from three different Celtic Tiger developments - Riverwalk Court in Ratoath in Co Meath, Millfield Manor in Newbridge Co Kildare and Dublin’s Longboat Quay development.
‘Crumble like Weetabix’
The documentary also reveals how the Department of the Environment had ‘serious concerns’ about the system that was used in Riverwalk Court and were reluctant to issue the certificates needed to sell a home.
Records show that Michael Ryan, the developer of Riverwalk Court, met with the then Minister for the Environment Martin Cullen.
In the end the Floor Area Compliance Certificates – which are required before new apartments can be sold – were issued, despite the reservations.
Sylvia Flynn, a resident at Riverwalk Court describes how balconies were beginning to “crumble like Weetabix”.
“In August, just before we moved out, one of the balconies in one of the apartments near me, the couple moved out with their children and they [the construction workers] literally came along to move, to take the render off, and the balcony just fell off.
They didn’t need tools. It was like a Weetabix effect – the wood just crumbled.
“After that happened they issued notices to all the residents to say ‘stay off the balconies’ and they put a brace on my balcony, because it was actually moving. If I stood and held on to the front of the balcony, the balcony front wall, it actually moved.”
Sylvia also described feeling relieved and lucky that nothing more serious had happened, “At the time it was a shock because Berkeley had only happened the week before when that horrendous tragedy with those children happened and it just opened your eyes even more that we were very lucky.
The engineer said we were very lucky that there wasn’t a catastrophic structural event here and that there was no loss of life. My son was on that balcony in the summer in a paddling pool and the weight of that water, I was thinking, my God, he could have gone through it.
The programme also examines the light-touch system of building regulation during the boom times and asks whether a new system brought in in the wake of the Priory Hall scandal, called SI9, is fit for purpose.
The new system creates no new legal remedies and, to date, there has been no public enquiry or recommendations on the back of the failings around developments like Longboat Quay, Priory Hall, Riverwalk Court and Millfield Manor.
‘Firehouse Homes’ the one hour special by investigative journalist Mick Clifford airs on TV3 at 9pm tonight.
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Fully completed early 2020?? Another year of it. Soul destroying every day
@Brian Dunne: The main work on the M7 is due to finish in 4 weeks. The rest if the work is mainly around the Sallins bypass and the new junction 10 exits
These boys would have it knocked out and be home within the first night…. https://youtu.be/KrPgXYrNGG4
@⚡ Seánie ⚡: except the video says it took them 21 days, and the chaos caused by trying to get 200 excavators up the N7?
Surely an early April Fools joke? 25km/h is a ridiculously slow speed
@Stingray Jones: it is to do with worker safety.
@Stingray Jones: advisory only… Not enforced… Limit is still 60 km/h
@Finbarr Barry: from the article ‘speed limit in force of 25km/hr’. Key words being limit and force, but hey, it’s your speeding ticket
@Vocal Outrage: Gardai said in yesterdays article it’s not enforceable but is advisory.
@Ian Breathnach: about 2 years ago there were roadworks near where I lived, 50km/hr limit during works, temporarily dropped under an advisory limit to 25km/hr for 2 weekends, I got the ticket doing 40km/hr. Strangely enough the judge didn’t agree with your logic of it being un-enforceable, although, he didn’t increase the fine or points
@Vocal Outrage: doubt you went to court as there must be a bye law to prosecute… Advisable speed limits do not have bye laws enacted
@Finbarr Barry: if not enforceable you could still be done for dangerous driving
@Finbarr Barry: ah, so you counter-argument is to simply call me a liar, very mature. Perhaps, just perhaps, you don’t understand the law as well as you think?
Ah here
@kokonutter: i agree
Are some speed freaks (being polite) here seriously suggesting they want to barrel through busy roadworks ?
25 km/h is an advisory… The speed limit is still 60 km/h
@Finbarr Barry: are you sure though? the traffic is getting diverted off onto sliproads &even on motorways sliproads have 50km /h speed limits.so 25 on a sliproad with roadworks going on sounds about right
@Dean Anderson: The Minister for Transport issued a direction to road authorities under section 95(16) of the Road Traffic Act 1961 in February 2007 with respect to a range of non-regulatory traffic signs. Chapter 8 of the Traffic Signs Manual was superseded by an updated version which allowed for the erection of signage stating a cautionary speed limit in the vicinity of Road Works. These speed limits are purposely different from legal speed limits and always display a speed limit that ends in 5, for example 35 km/h (22 mph), 45 km/h (28 mph), etc. They are not legally binding on drivers but it is likely that in the event of a road traffic accident that the issue of if they were being complied with, would be taken into account.
@Finbarr Barry: again, use of the word limit, it would be termed something like maximum advisory speed, but a limit is just that, a limit
No diversion in place this morning at 4am when I travelled that stretch. Sailed through it.
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