Window blind safety rules ‘not mandatory’

Strict consumer rules are preventing the Government from introducing new window-blind child death prevention safety guidelines on a mandatory basis.

The Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation is set to publish National Safety Authority of Ireland rules on the potentially lifesaving issue today, in response to growing public concern.

Since 2005, 15 children in Ireland have died from hanging after becoming entangled in window blind cords in their own homes — including Cork child Arran Malley in 2009, and Dean Regan Russell, from Tralee, who died last year.