Kildare fire report - High and dry

ON the face of it it seems at least unsatisfactory that Kildare County Council has refused to publish a report outlining major fire concerns discovered in an estate where six homes were turned into a smouldering ruins in minutes.

This is so as the report raises concerns about party walls in the timber frame houses, and other serious construction flaws, all, it seems, legacies of our fondness for light-touch regulation. The estate’s developer has gone into liquidation.

At a meeting earlier this week council officials refused to give councillors copies of the report and told residents that it was their own responsibility to have their homes surveyed and to undertake any remedial action that is needed.

This sad story has many of the elements that got this country into such a sorry mess. A denial of transparency by officials who feel able to refuse elected representatives important information; a catastrophe that might never have happened if building was properly supervised by relevant, objective authorities; and, worst of all, home owners left high and dry by a system that should have protected them.

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