The Housing Minister has been called to put houses in the Oldcourt estate in Wicklow under "proposed review" following serious fire safety concerns.

Sinn Féin TD for Wicklow and East Carlow, John Brady, said work to ensure fire safety measures are in place remain incomplete.

He said: "For many years, I had called on Bray Town Council to carry out an independent fire safety audit; this led to €70,000 secured for the audit which commenced in 2005. This was eventually completed in 2007; it was a damning audit. Yet, ten years later, the necessary works have not been fully carried out. This is unacceptable in the extreme.

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"Funding had been secured for two initial phases to carry out essential fire safety works which ended in 2015 when funded dried up. It now appears that a reduced amount of funding has been allocated for phase three and questions remain unanswered as to whether works in these homes has been scaled back given the reduced budget.

"While the Government have now committed to a review of all multi-storey residential buildings in the State, older buildings which were later refurbished under refurbishment schemes, such is the case with Oldcourt, must be thoroughly examined for adequate fire safety standards."

(CD/LM)