Residents living in a housing estate in County Waterford have been left "high and dry" after contractors failed to comply with building regulations, according to Sinn Fein.

A number of health and safety defects have been identified on homes in the Ceol Na Mara Housing Estate and the developer is now in receivership.

TD for Waterford David Cullinane is calling on the Environment Minister to support the residents as they have little civil legal remedy.

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He said: "In recent times, the Royal Institute of Architects in talking about the Longboat key fiasco said that many more Longboat Quays could happen because building control legislation has yet to be fixed. They called for the increased resourcing of local authorities to allow them to properly police building standards

"They called very importantly for mandatory independent inspections, which would be outside the control or influence of developers and builders. They called for the establishment of a consumer redress scheme and much more. And yet the Ministers response to my query is that he has 'no function in assessing, checking or testing compliance, or otherwise, of specific works or developments'. This is unacceptable. It is not good enough that the state keeps washing its hands of responsibility on these important matters."

(CD/MH)