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The Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Darragh O’Brien, has published the Code of Practice to support the development of a reasonable and practicable approach to resolving fire safety defects in apartments and duplexes constructed between 1991 and 2013.
The Code of Practice will ensure a consistent approach is taken nationwide to remediation works to be undertaken. It will allow stakeholders such as Owners' Management Companies (OMCs) and industry to begin preparatory work to align their work with its provisions. The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage will now accelerate the preparatory work already underway with local authority sector, particularly Fire Services, to establish the necessary processes and structures to use the Code of Practice.
Going forward the Code of Practice will be a key document to support the operation of the remediation scheme and will be subject to periodic review.
The Code of Practice also provides guidance to OMCs, building professionals and local authority building control/fire services, including guidance on interim safety measures, in the context of the Fire Services Acts 1981 & 2003.
The department is currently working with the Housing Agency on advice and guidance on the steps OMCs should take when carrying out remediation works related to fire safety defects. This includes funding mechanisms for interim fire safety measures in extreme cases and further details of this will be published in the Autumn.
Commenting, Minister O’Brien said:
“Since the government decision of 18 January which paved the way for a remediation scheme to be established we have been working hard to progress the various programmes of work which are required. Government approved the principle of allowing remediation costs already incurred or levied to be covered under the scope and defined parameters of the scheme and I will reiterate that any fire-safety works entered into since the date of the decision will also be covered.
“We are working to draft the necessary legislation to underpin the remediation scheme. I have always said a scheme as large and as important as this requires the preparation of its own bespoke legislation, and that is what we are doing. We are working on this as a matter of priority and are entirely focused on establishing a scheme that is fit for purpose and works for the people impacted."
As articulated in the government decision of 18 January, the Housing Agency will play a central role in the remediation scheme when it becomes operational. The Housing Agency has established a web portal to serve as a knowledge base. OMCs are now invited to indicate their potential interest in the future remediation scheme by inputting information on their developments on the portal. This portal is not a formal registration for the future remediation scheme, rather it is an information ‘gathering and giving’ platform.
Minister O’Brien concluded:
“I am very grateful to the Housing Agency for its work to date with my department. We are working collectively to ensure that any life-safety works are continued and indeed completed in advance of the full scheme being legislated for."
