Position of The Laurels tenants almost enviable in comparison to Priory Hall owners

Fine Gael TD for Dublin South, Olivia Mitchell TD, has  questioned how many other apartment blocks may have similar issues to The Laurels in Dundrum and if they will be discovered and rectified before lives are endangered.

“The deficiencies and threat to safety revealed at The Laurels apartment complex in Dundrum once again highlights the need for much tougher legislation to govern the inspection and certification of new buildings. This legislation is currently going through the Dáil and should help prevent similar deficiencies in future buildings.

“The worry now though is how many other apartment blocks built in the Celtic Tiger years have similar safety issues? Unlike Priory Hall, the inhabitants of the Dundrum apartments are not owners but tenants so the problem of retrofitting fire safety features falls not on them, but on the receiver KPMG who took over from the original property developer.

“It’s ironic that the collapse of the property market and the failure to sell these apartments in the boom means that the current occupiers are protected in a way that simply wouldn’t have been possible had they bought the apartments. The tenants of The Laurels will be discommoded but they will have their rent and utility bills paid for during the period of the evacuation so they will not incur costs as a result of the move. Compared to the hapless Priory Hall residents the position of the Dundrum tenants is almost enviable.”