Eoin Ó. Broin - Defects : living with the legacy of the celtic tiger

This is a devastating critique of a political system in which the power of vested interests ensured that the state abrogated its duty to protect homeowners and tenants. Eoin Broin details the human cost of the self-certification of building regulations that was in place until recent years and asks whether even now we have a regime fit for purpose.

Mick Clifford

Eoin Broin is a TD for Dublin Mid-West and Sinn Fins spokesperson on Housing, Local Government and Heritage. He is author of Matxinada, Basque Nationalism and Radical Basque Youth Movements (LRB 2003), Sinn Fin and the Politics of Left Republicanism (Pluto 2009) and HOME: Why Public Housing is the Answer (Merrion Press 2019). He writes regularly on housing policy issues for a
range of newspapers and online publications.

DEFECTS

Living with the Legacy
of the Celtic Tiger

EOIN BROIN

First published in 2021 by

Merrion Press

10 Georges Street

Newbridge

Co. Kildare

Ireland

www.merrionpress.ie

Eoin Broin, 2021

9781785373961 (Paper)

9781785373985 (Epub)

A CIP catalogue record for this book is
available from the British Library.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the publisher of this book.

Typeset in Sabon LT Std 11/15 pt

Cover designed by Fiachra McCarthy
www.fiachramccarthy.com

Back cover image Alan Betson / THE IRISH TIMES

Merrion Press is a member of Publishing Ireland.

Thanks

To Lynn for everything.

To Ailbhe for continued advice, assistance and patience.

To Bthar Bu (Sarah and Kieran) for another inspirational though sadly interrupted stay in January 2020.

To the BRegsBlog group for all the assistance since 2016.

To Deirdre N Fhloinn for corrections, comments and the important additional reading material.

Contents

Acknowledgements

T o Paul Coleman, Paul Kavanagh and Sinead OFlaherty for first bringing the issue of latent defects to my attention in 2013 and for having the courage to take a stand for what is right.

To Ciara Holland, Lorraine and Gary Carew, Mark, Aine and Alan, and Michael Doherty for being so open and honest with their experience of living with latent defects.

Particular thanks to Stephanie Meehan for demonstrating such bravery and generosity despite the enormous cost she and her children have had to pay for building defects they did not cause.

To all those journalists from local and national print and broadcast media who have continuously brought the issue of latent defects to light, exposed those responsible and given a voice to those most affected. Their work is important and must be continued.

To all involved in the Construction Defects Alliance for bringing owners together, coordinating their campaign and giving hope to so many people.

OVERTURE

An Unnecessary Death

O n that morning, Stephanie woke later than usual. Her 7-year-old son Oisin hadnt been sleeping well, so she spent the night downstairs in the childrens bedroom. As she opened her eyes and stretched to start the day, her partner Fiachra should have been up and out already, hard at work.

She looked out of the window and saw Fiachras van in the driveway. Thats strange, she thought.

Stephanie picked up her phone and dialled, twice, but no answer. She shouted, Fiachra, youre late for work, youre late for work as she climbed the stairs to the third floor.

When she opened the door to their bedroom, Fiachra was there. Stephanie touched his face. It was stone cold. He was dead. He had hanged himself during the night. It was Monday, 15 July 2013.

Thirty-eight-year-old Fiachra Daly was a hard-working family man. He loved his partner, Stephanie Meehan, and their two young children, Oisin and Cerys. He had a good job with DGM installing gas boilers. He worked long hours, often coming home well after 8 p.m. According to Stephanie, he was the kind of man who believed that you should get out of life what you put into it. But since the problems had started to emerge in their apartment in Priory Hall some years earlier, Fiachra felt he wasnt getting what he should have gotten.

Stephanie, Fiachra and their two children were among the 256 residents evacuated from their homes in the north Dublin development on foot of a court order in 2011. Priory Hall had significant fire-safety defects, and the developer, Tom McFeely, had failed to address the problems, despite a previous court ruling.

Fiachra and his family were placed in emergency accommodation, first in one hotel and then another, for several weeks. Then they were moved to a house owned by the National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) in nearby Belmayne.

Initially they had continued to pay their mortgage on the Priory Hall property. They were told that they would only be out of their home for a few weeks. But weeks turned into months and, out of anger and frustration, they stopped paying their lender, KBC.

In the months before his death, Fiachra was increasingly stressed. The bank would ring every single day. Then, when a moratorium was eventually agreed, there were the intrusive financial statements to be filled out.

While Stephanie threw herself into the residents campaign at Priory Hall, attending meetings and vigils, Fiachra turned in on himself.

Looking back with hindsight, Stephanie said, he wasnt dealing with it well. He stopped going out, didnt want to socialise, even avoided family occasions.

Stephanie remembers Sunday, 14 July 2013 as a beautiful, sunny day. They were due to go to her mothers house for a barbecue, to take their mind off the stress of it all. Fiachra didnt want to go. Stephanie felt he needed a break from the kids.

When she got home, Fiachra was unusually anxious about a KBC financial statement request that had arrived during the week. While the bank had granted the moratorium on payments, they were still charging interest, and the letter said they owed an extra 20,000. He was angry. He worked hard, looked after his family, paid his taxes, did everything right. Why were his family being treated like this? Stephanie said he was really, really unhappy.

The post-mortem returned an open verdict. The Dublin coroner Dr Brian Farrell said that because Fiachra had a high level of alcohol in his system, it was not possible to say whether he was in clear mind. His death may have been self-inflicted, but the coroner could not determine whether it had been intended.

Speaking to journalists after the inquest in August 2014, Stephanie said that Fiachras death happened completely out of the blue. Everybody was very surprised. He was a very happy, kind person. Everyone was equally shocked.

Despite dealing with the grief of losing her partner, Stephanie had the strength to write to the then Taoiseach, Enda Kenny.

Dear Enda,

I have emailed you on many occasions, regarding my situation in Priory Hall. You have replied once.

On July 15th mine and my childrens lives changed forever, my beautiful, kind, caring partner and father to my children took his own life. His name is Fiachra Daly. We miss him terribly. My life will never be the same. My childrens lives will never be the same.

Fiachra was the happiest man on earth, he lived for myself, Oisin (7) and Cerys (2), he never suffered from any form of mental illness or depression, we had been together for 17 years and I never once witnessed any signs.