On at least three previous occasions during adjournment debates in the 30th Dail on the North Fringe development in Dublin North East, I have urged Minister John Gormley to hold a wideranging enquiry into the planning and construction of this huge new urban district.

In the earlier infill scandal which affects at least 300 housing units in the Coast, Baldoyle and Clongriffin, Donaghmede, I urged Minister Gormley to initiate a Commission of Inquiry and a Garda Siochana inquiry into the construction of those homes and the quarry which supplied the defective pyrite infill.

Now another appalling planning and fire safety disaster is enfolding in another part of the North Fringe in Priory Hall, Hole in the Wall Road, Donaghmede, Dublin 13 and I renew that call tonight. Minister Gormley has a grave duty to ensure the personal safety of all residents of Priory Hall. He must also immediately hold Dublin City Manager John Tierney and his predecessor, former City Manager John Fitzgerald to account for their unacceptable failure to implement the planning and building regulations in the North Fringe district.

Dublin City Council Area Management in Donaghmede have recently informed 16 of their tenancy households at the Priory Hall complex in the North Fringe, Donaghmede that they will have to be moved out of their homes in the next week or so because of the serious danger of a major fire at the complex. The Priory Hall apartment complex includes 187 apartments in four and five storey blocks. Two of those blocks (numbers 7 and 12) are home to 16 Dublin City Council tenancies.

I have made frequent complaints to City Manager John Tierney and North Central Area Manager Celine Reilly about serious flooding, infrastructural problems and anti-social behaviour at Priory Hall since the apartments were opened just over two years ago. A number of City Council tenants have asked to go on the Dublin City Transfer list in that time. In addition to the 16 City Council tenancies there are a further seven families living there on the City Council’s Rental Accommodation Scheme and another seven families who have purchased Priory Hall apartments through the Affordable Housing Scheme. I am informed that 20 apartments are vacant at present so this leaves 137 apartments which are occupied by private purchasers and private tenants.

Following several lengthy investigations of fire safety in the apartments at Priory Hall and nearby Clongriffin by the Dublin City Fire Chief Mr. Hugh O’Neill, a Fire Safety Notice under the Fire Safety Acts was served on Coalport Building Company (which built Priory Hall) on September 4th 2009. The fire notice refers to the North and South Blocks of Priory Hall as a "potentially dangerous building". It also orders a schedule of urgent fire safety remedial measures. These include a fire safety management system; the urgent inspection and maintenance of the emergency lighting, fire detection and alarm systems; electrical, gas and lift installations and fire door assemblies. The provision of portable first aid fire fighting equipment is also requested and loose fitting stair carpets are to be removed along with all building debris in the basement and any other common areas.

This appalling saga raises many very serious questions for Dublin City Council Manager John Tierney, Planning Manager Michael Stubbs, Housing Manager Ciaran MacNamara and for Environment Minister John Gormley T.D. himself.

Firstly, why did Manager Tierney allow 30 families to be housed at Priory Hall in the first place when a final Fire Safety Certificate had not been granted to the builder Coalport and when those families’ lives were clearly in danger? What, if any, measures has he taken to rehouse the 137 privately purchased and rented households and has he contacted Minister Gormley in relation to these families’ plight? Indeed why is Manager Tierney not rehousing all 167 families immediately for their protection and safety? The privately purchased apartment owners in Priory Hall are particularly vulnerable to negative equity and have had serious problems with the disgracefully inadequate operation of the Management Companies in the complex.

On my own proposal in 2005, a North Fringe Forum was established by City Manager John Fitzgerald and again tonight, I demand an immediate meeting of that body which is composed of residents, public representatives and all relevant stakeholders under the Chairmanship of Clive Brownlee.

I urge Minister Gormley even at this late stage to make an order designating the huge North Fringe (an area of potentially 30,000 housing units) as a Strategic Development Zone (SDZ) so that there would be a statutory basis for the necessary invigilation, repair and completion of Clongriffin, Priory Hall, the Coast, Belmayne, Clare Village and other areas of the North Fringe. But first and most urgently the residents of Priory Hall should be rehoused in safe accommodation and all fire safety, water and other deficiencies in the estate remedied to the highest standards as soon as possible.