Last week, I asked the Taoiseach to intervene personally on the issue of fire safety works at Longboat Quay. I asked him to contact directly the developer of the complex, Mr. Bernard McNamara, to ensure that he and those responsible for the lack of adequate fire safety at the apartments footed the bill. The Taoiseach indicated that he needed some time to acquaint himself with the facts of the case. He has now had a week to do so. Since last week, the position of the 900 residents of Longboat Quay has become worse. They now have 25 days to start remediation works or they will be evacuated. They have also been told by Dublin City Council management that the council will not be in a position to house them if they are evacuated. The derisory offer of additional funding from the Dublin Docklands Development Authority has been rightly rejected as unacceptable by residents. They have, therefore, 25 days to produce millions of euro. The Taoiseach and I both know that is neither possible nor fair that they do so.

Bernard McNamara and the people he employed are responsible for the apartments in Longboat Quay. It is not acceptable that residents spend night after night living in fear of fire or evacuation while Mr. McNamara goes about his business rebuilding his development empire. The solution to the problem at Longboat Quay can only be found if those responsible for the fire safety breaches are brought around the table and told to pay up.

I ask the Taoiseach again if he will pick up the telephone, call Bernard McNamara, demand to know what role he will play in resolving this problem and convene the meeting I described to bring all responsible parties around the table to foot the bill?

This is another example of the poor standards that existed during the so-called Celtic tiger years for buildings and apartment blocks such as Longboat Quay. Deputy McDonald is aware that the Building Control Act 1990 placed responsibility for compliance with building regulations on the owner of the building concerned, its designer and the builder-developer who carried out the works - in this case, the person named by the Deputy. Enforcement of these regulations and responsibility for their enforcement are matters for local authorities which have extensive powers of inspection and enforcement under the Building Control Acts and Fire Safety Act 1981.

The Deputy will be aware of the reports of fire certificates being issued and not being acted on in a particular time. The Planning and Development Acts and Housing Acts may also be relevant to fire safety, which has been the cause of the extreme and stressful position in which the residents of Longboat Quay find themselves. Remediation of defects - renovation works to deal with them - is a matter for the parties concerned, namely, the current owners and the builder-developer and his or her agents and insurers. If a satisfactory resolution cannot be found or achieved through dialogue or negotiation, the option of seeking a legal remedy is always available.

The issues that emerged during this debacle are a matter for the Dublin Docklands Development Authority, the receiver to the developer, the residents of Longboat Quay and their management company and Dublin Fire Brigade to resolve collaboratively. I understand that all these parties are anxious to find a resolution and the management company and others have met the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government in the past hour or thereabouts to seek a resolution to this matter in order that the residents, who paid good money for their apartments and homes, are not required to live in this very stressful condition where their homes are deemed to be dangerous.

Since Longboat Quay was built, a number of changes have been made to the regulations that apply. Since 1 March 2015, greatly strengthened arrangements have been in place for the control of building activity. These require greater accountability in respect of the conditions that apply and are awarded for planning in the first place. I am not aware of the detail of the outcome of the meeting between the Minister and representatives of the management company in the past hour. Responsibility is vested across a number of interest areas and I hope the matter can be resolved. I am aware of the reduction in the original figure mentioned but that is not satisfactory for the residents of Longboat Quay.

The Taoiseach very thoroughly washed his hands of this matter or at least attempted to do so. It is of no comfort to residents of Longboat Quay, whom I visited at the weekend, to hear the Taoiseach recount all of the malpractice of the past as that does not solve their problem. The residents find themselves in a position where there are very serious deficiencies in fire safety in the homes in which they live and for which, as the Taoiseach acknowledged, they paid good money. A derisory and unacceptable offer was made to them. The Taoiseach and I know that the residents cannot put their hands on thousands of euro and should not have to do so because the fault does not rest with them.

The Deputy should ask a question.

The Taoiseach needs to intervene. I can only assume from his response that he did not seek out Mr. Bernard McNamara. I tried unsuccessfully to get a telephone number for Mr. McNamara. If anyone has contact details for him, please pass them on and I will call him.

Deputy Martin should check his diary for the number.

Last week, the Royal Institute of Architects stated that many more cases similar to Longboat Quay could occur because building control legislation has yet to be fixed. It called for increased resourcing of local authorities to allow them to properly police building standards.

Sorry, Deputy, will you put a question, please?

It called for mandatory independent inspections that would be outside the control of developers, which would be a very important change. It also called for the establishment of a consumer redress scheme and very much more.

Sorry, Deputy, you must put a question.

All we get from the Taoiseach, however, is an unwillingness to intervene directly, as he should do, with Mr. McNamara and the other parties. The Taoiseach should make clear that residents will not be expected to put their hands in their pockets to pay for this work.

Deputy, will you put a question, please?

Rather than slapping himself on the back, the Taoiseach should give a commitment that he will introduce the necessary amending legislation and new resources to ensure this horror story is not revisited in the future. That is what he should do. Will he call Mr. McNamara and make plain that the residents will not bear the costs?

The Deputy must comply with the Chair.

That is what I want to hear the Taoiseach say and it is what the residents want to hear from him. They will not pay for this.

Deputy McDonald seems to absolve from all responsibility in this matter the Dublin Docklands Development Authority, the receiver to the developer, the management company, Dublin Fire Brigade and the residents of Longboat Quay who have a direct interest in the issue.

The management company is made up of residents.

The Deputy wants to focus on one name and wants me to state that, on her instruction, I will ring up the person in question. This is a much more complex issue than she portrays. Serious changes have been made to the building regulations since 1 March 2014. I regret to say that it is my belief, as the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government pointed out, that there are other cases in the system that may be more complex than this case. They are certainly out there. That is all a legacy arising from the assumption made by the party opposite that the country's services and future could be run on the takings from the construction sector.

Who controlled Dublin City Council?

What amendments to building legislation did the Government make in the past five years?

In many cases, including in this case, the taxpayer is at the end of the line and is left to sort out these matters. Deputy McDonald is absolving from all responsibility the Dublin Docklands Development Authority, the receiver to the developer, Dublin Fire Brigade and the management company. In her view, these parties do not have any responsibility in this matter.

As I indicated, the Minister met various people in the past hour. Far from washing our hands of this matter, as Deputy McDonald suggests, the Minister has acted to support the interests of owners and residents of developments about which concerns arise or allegations of non-compliance in respect of fire safety regulations are made.

The Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Alan Kelly, has recently announced an independent fire safety expert report to develop a framework for general application where such allegations are made. The review, which will include a case study based on the Millfield Manor estate in Newbridge, County Kildare, and will conclude at an early date - by the end of January 2016 - will ensure appropriate or enhanced fire detection and alarm measures, some of which have been installed at Longboat Quay, ensure that appropriate escape routes from the premises are designed in accordance with current standards, which may not apply at Longboat Quay, and ensure that there are plans for proper evacuation and that such plans are rehearsed, as would normally apply.

So he is washing his hands of it. Very interesting.

Send him up to Prospect Hill on the Finglas Road also.

An Taoiseach, please.

The independent review group will also take account of the typical risk profile faced by residents such as these. There is supposed to be - the Deputy knows a lot about buildings, and she knows this - a series of regular meetings about any construction project that is under way, attended by those involved, whether it be the architect, the clerk of works or the developers and their personnel. Where a job is going wrong, it should be taken down and built to the specifications under the planning permission that was granted in the first instance.

In that case, call Mr. McNamara and tell him.

We are now nearly five minutes over time.

But no; the rush to build 100,000 houses a year and fire them up in any condition has resulted in Longboat Quay-----

And Prospect Hill.

And Priory Hall.

-----and other places around the country where ordinary people who went along and got money from their banks and lending institutions are now caught in fire traps, essentially.

And the Taoiseach is happy to let them pay.

We need to get to the bottom of this, and the five elements I have mentioned are central to sorting it out. Far from washing his hands of it, the Minister, Deputy Kelly, has taken a direct interest in it. The Deputy might not like to hear that, but it is a fact.

That will not happen in 25 days, and the Taoiseach will not ensure that the residents do not have to pay. He is a disgrace.