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IRELAND IS HEADING for a stormy start to next week, although it may be slightly less than the hurricane that has been mooted.
Currently, Hurricane Ophelia is gathering pace over the Atlantic, and is expected to make landfall on this side of the ocean on Monday.
However, it may not be as bad as all that – Met Éireann says it’ll have downgraded itself to a mere tropical storm by that time. So it’s bad, but it could be worse.
“Current indications suggest a stormy day for Monday is possible,” says Met.ie.
But uncertainty on the detail remains, due to the nature of the track of the Atlantic storm system. The situation will be monitored throughout the weekend but at the moment it looks like it will be a windy day with further spells of rain.
So that’s good. It’s still set to be a rainy weekend, starting from tonight, with things remaining “dull and damp” throughout Friday and for most of Saturday and Sunday, with light-to-moderate winds from the south.
For the moment however, it’s very nice outside altogether, with Dublin currently soaking up some very welcome sunshine.
Enjoy it while it lasts.
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If multiple developments by McNamara have been substandard, why is he even allowed to build again?
Why is he not in prison awaiting trial?
It are there too many backhanders floating around to know where this ends
isn’t there an office of corporate enforcement. why is he still allowed to be a company director?
People who build these incinerators should never be allowed to be involved in construction again. But the public have a right to know the names of the ARCHITECTS who signed off on these buildings also my understanding is that architects needed professional liability insurance in order to be able to sign off these buildings
So come on who signed off longboat quay
how can a so called labour party stand over this ??????????
We need a building control along same lines as english model. No arguement just put it in place govenment and stop faffing around. Heard today there is more dog wardens than building inspectors in Ireland. Disgraceful
@ family guy : we did have a new building control system, introduced in March 2014. It was rescinded on Sept 2015 in the main, on foot of whinging by ” interested parties”…
And would someone explain how this COWBOY BUILDER is allowed to start up again ???.
The one he is refurbishing now is owned by……………………………………………..
DOB.
So we are living in a country where developers can put people’s lives at stake for money and pay no price. The people responsible for allowing this , should be arrested for endangering life.
This fuucker and his equals should be doing time a very long time.
I wouldn’t be going near any of his properties to buy!! Can you imagine?
If a Government agency like NAMA were aware of previous issues with his properties, why was he given the contract to build the IW HQ?
It’s because once you are in the Golden Circle, you’re in for life.
he’s back building? why can’t govt sue him?
it can’t be done. It’s the way company law is. His company that built this housing went bankrupt and was then liquidated. As it was a Ltd company the liability is restricted to the shareholders funds. As that company is gone, so has McNamara’s liability. As far as the law is concerned he’s a new man with a clean slate. The ODCE is another matter but it would have to be shown that he deliberately developed sub standard housing knowingly skirting fire laws etc.
Who is being supported by taxpayer funded banks, local authorities and central government you mean ?
Well let us all be thankful that there isn’t a satalite dish on the wrong wall.
Yes those damn satellite dishes are the real menace to society. Thank god for the vigilance of the relevant authorities of such matters . We can’t allow some old lady to get away with this.
I don’t care how old somebody is they don’t get to ignore the laws. There is plenty of scope to find an individual and a company guilty of breaking regulations. The fact one is easy to spot is just the nature of what was or was not done.
The fact is you can’t sue a company after it is gone nor hold the owners responsible forever more. Huge amount of company law you would need to change and it won’t happen.
There is no way that people like Bernard McNamara should be given any more government, semi-state or local authority contracts until they fix the problems that their former companies left behind. If they don’t sort them then black ball them excluding them from any tendering processes in the future both as the primary and sub contracted tenderer.
It is an absolute disgrace that someone whose companies have no been proven to have flouted building regulations is being allowed to continue on in the same trade. I’d be very interested in hearing Mr Tom Parlon of the Construction Industry Federation’s thoughts on this situation. It would be a very worthwhile interview to conduct TheJournal, are you game to ask some difficult questions to the organisation that represents the builders and developers.
Can you imagine the amount of sweaty palms he greased during the Celtic Tiger years?
He’s simply calling in a few favours from the lads in the Golden Circle.
That’s how it works.
The reality is in order to build substandard housing you didn’t have to bribe anybody. It was all limited liability and self regulation. Building bylaw regulation was done away with so nobody was watching.
The new regulations are more expensive for extensions and not fit for purpose allowing similar to happen again. Bring back the original system it was much better.
It’s all in the name Mc NAMA ra
How and who gave the sign off on these apartments again nobody is ever held accountable
That is the most important point I feel. All the money in planning and compliance and a totally inept system that has allowed this. Hard to believe regulators don’t regulate and the householder is left on the Hook for it. They are doubtless still in their jobs not giving a single f**k that buildings were certified that are plainly dangerous. As Anthony said 0 accountability so disgraceful. There should be a campaign to hold the people with oversight of these apartments to book.
The architect sign off to state that the building is compliant, but instead of accountability the taxpayer picks up the tab.
Failed banks, Quinn Insurance, ICI, PMPA, the taxpayer pays for the lot.
Bernard McNamara and his company should be banned from any building even a garden shed in this state
Wasn’t McNamara one of B-Bertie’s p-pals?
I worked on that development. Had no idea this was going on
Government won’t do anything about these rogue builders until we have people killed like the Berkeley balcony collapse
There is definitely something badly wrong with the system. If your car has an inherent fault, then the manufacturer repairs it for free. VW will do this with the emissions scandal and its proper order. Why should housing be different? If you buy a house in good faith and it later has subsidence or has inherent faults like fire violations, why on earth should the buyer be on the hook to repair it? And surely banks as mortgage holders should be involved and should be using their leverage to push for a resolution. as their asset is on the line here as well.
If VW no longer existed nobody would fix your car. The company that built this property no longer exists
A fair point. in cases like that though an agency would be appointed as a responsible post holder to ensure quality standards, spare parts etc for the cars left. Same in aviation. Companies will sometimes step in under contract to be the designated post holder. Nothing like that with housing. Which is wrong…. there has to some kind of liability path back to the source.
same construction model was dublicated on trinity house student apartments on dartry road. worked on both projects for mr mcNAMAra
What happened to the DOB article…??
It self redacted after eight comments. Seems standard enough around here where Boo is the same as Dob.
Look guys its a banana republic and it never going to change, Left, Right are all the same looking out for themselves and their friends.
Here’s the real question! if a fire did break out and there were fatalaties, who is responsible then??? Being in the building game…..there are a load more of these in the pipeline, buildings that are not up to fire regs! FACT.
Bernard McNamara was very well got with FF. He is now extremely well got with FG.
I feel desperately sorry for Labour. They would love to have an in and to be close to McNamara but two Labour Ministers for State have chikdren who own apartments in Longboat Quay.
One Bernard McNamara is worth more than 200,000 citizens. The larger political parties are servile to the interests of large property developers.
Homebond and the CIF are no protection at all. They induce peole into thinking that they have protection, when in reality they have no protection.
Corporate governance and public governance in Ireland are utterly deficient and titally dysfunctional.
We also been asked to stump up €12,000 per apartment in D15
That’s not acceptable.
Angela, your’e also paying for Longboat Quay, and the thousands of apartments NAMA have repaired on the sly,
Given that there has to be a sign off, from planning and an inspection after build why are the local authority officers not being questioned here?
Tip of the iceberg.
If you bought a car and at it’s first NCT test it was discovered that it had no airbag fitted and the catalytic converter was not correctly fitted you would fail the NCT. The manufacturer would be fully responsible to correct these errors immediately at THEIR cost. You would also be entitled to a loan car for the duration of the repairs.
Just look at the current VW disclosures. They and not the customer are fully responsible and must undertake all necessary corrections at their expense. Why then, if you buy an apartment should it be YOUR problem even though you paid all the mandatory inspection and certificates costs?
The cause of the Longboat Quay problem, which is far from isolated, is a consequence of successive Governments in Ireland, comprising FF, the former PDs, FG and Labour all beholden to and in thrall to property developers.
Governments have been corrupted by submitting to the vested interests of highly influential major property developers.
And there should have been funds set aside for such issues, even if the company subsequently “was dissolved”. Why was that waived? Tenants held to ransom over this. For most people their home is the largest purchase they’ll ever make. Many bought off plans. Where was the regulation, the inspections, the safeguards?
This is brinkmanship with the livelihood of the owner occupiers at stake.
It would have been far smarter for NAMA and DDDA to have settled this one quietly.
Now if I understand it correctly, NAMA has a duty of care to ensure that every property it has under its control has the correct certification and spec.
This makes the taxpayer responsible for far more than the Government thought that it would…
Normally when you buy something that is not up to standard the seller pays.
HL Mencken observed that for every complex question there was an answer that was simple, clearcut. And wrong. But wrt these building standards there really is a simple and clearcut answer. The people who signed off on the building should PERSONALLY be both civilly and CRIMINALLY liable for serious misrepresentations. That would stop it over night.
Tear it down start over !
Very concerning … https://youtu.be/huXDlLFQ4Aw
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