I move:
That it is expedient that a tribunal be established for—
1. inquiring into the following definite matters of urgent public importance:
(1) the immediate and other causes of, and the circumstances leading to, the fire at the Stardust Club, Artane, Dublin, on the 14th February, 1981.
(2) the circumstances of and leading to the loss of life and personal injury at the Stardust Club on the 14th February, 1981.
(3) the measures, and their adequacy, taken on and before the 14th February, 1981, to prevent and detect, and to minimise and otherwise to deal with fire at the Stardust Club.
(4) the means and systems of emergency escape from the Stardust Club, and their adequacy, on the 14th February, 1981.
(5) the measures, and their adequacy, taken on and before the 14th February, 1981, at the Stardust Club to prevent and to minimise and otherwise to deal with any other circumstances that led or contributed to the loss of life and personal injury aforesaid or might have led or contributed to loss of life or personal injury;
and
2. making such recommendations as the Tribunal, having regard to its findings, thinks proper in respect of the statutory and other provisions in relation to fire, fire prevention and means and systems of emergency escape from fire, their adequacy and enforcement and any other matters that the Tribunal considers relevant.
Since submitting the motion I have decided to revise it in paragraph 2 so as to delete the original word "general" and substitute the words "statutory and other". We are all, Government and people alike, extremely shocked and distressed by the appalling tragedy which occurred in the Stardust Club in Artane in the early morning of Saturday last, when so many young people lost their lives and more than 150 others suffered injuries.
On behalf of the Government and myself, I wish to again extend our deepest sympathy to the bereaved, to their relatives and friends and to all those who have suffered injury. I should like to take this opportunity also of paying tribute to the heroism and devotion to duty of the members of the fire service, the ambulance services, the Garda, hospital staff, members of Civil Defence and others involved for their marvellous work on the night of the tragedy.
We have a duty to the victims of this disastrous fire and to their relatives, and, indeed, to all our people, to do everything in our power to establish the circumstances and causes of the fire. We must seek out as fully as possible the lessons to be learned from this terrible event, so as to prevent, as far as is humanly possible, such a disaster occurring again. It is for these reasons that the Government decided that the body appointed to hold the inquiry should have the highest status in law and they concluded that a Tribunal of Inquiry under the Tribunals of Inquiry (Evidence) Acts, 1921 and 1979, would be the most appropriate for the purpose.
The President of the High Court has consented that the Honourable Mr. Justice Ronan Keane will constitute the Tribunal. He will be assisted by a number of assessors who have been chosen on the basis of high calibre, experience and expertise. Their names are as follows:
Professor David Rasbash, B.Sc.,
Ph. D.,
Department of Fire Safety Engineering,
Edinburgh University.
Mr. Gunnar Haurum,
Chief Inspector of the Fire Service,
Denmark.
Mr. Pierce Pigott, B.E., M.Sc., C.
Eng., F.I.E.I.,
Head of Construction Division,
An Foras Forbartha,
St. Martin's House,
Waterloo Road,
Dublin, 4.
I should like to express my gratitude to Mr. Justice Keane and the assessors for agreeing to the Government's invitation to act.
The tribunal is being given very wide terms of reference to enable it to carry out its task. It will be empowered to inquire into the cause of the disaster and the circumstances in which it occured and to examine the adequacy of the measures taken to prevent, detect or minimise or otherwise deal with the occurrence and also the means of emergency escape.
In line with the Government's declared determination to have the most searching and exhaustive inquiry carried out, the tribunal is established for making such recommendations as it, having regard to its findings, thinks proper in respect of the general provisions in relation to fire, fire prevention and means and systems of emergency escape from fire, their adequacy and enforcement and any other matter that the tribunal considers relevant.
The tribunal will be empowered to require the attendance of witnesses, the giving of evidence and the production of documents and the terms of reference will provide the tribunal with full scope in its conduct of the inquiry.
The State will provide an independent solicitor and counsel who will be available to act for the next-of-kin of any victim and for any injured party before the tribunal. Any such party who wishes to be represented by this legal service should apply to the solictor. Every party is of course at liberty to make his own arrangements independently of this State aid. The tribunal will sit in the premises of the Incorporated Law Society of Ireland, Blackhall Place, Dublin, and will have its first meeting on Monday, 2 March 1981.
In deference to the feelings of the bereaved and the relatives of the victims of the tragedy, I had intended to confine my remarks to the minimum necessary to introduce this motion. However, I feel obliged to comment on certain unfounded statements of a serious nature which have been made and which may have given rise to some public disquiet.
The effectiveness of the fire service has been called into question and I should like to put on record that on the night in question the Dublin Fire Brigade behaved in an exemplary manner. From a report that I received at 10.30 a.m. on the morning of the fire the following facts emerged. From the initial call to the fire brigade at 1.43 a.m. four fire engines, including a turn-table ladder together with an emergency tender and two ambulances, immediately responded. On arrival the brigade immediately went into action. After an assessment of the situation a call was made, eight minutes after the original summons at 1.51 a.m., to headquarters and the Major Accident Plan was put into operation.
Statements have been made that my Department have deliberately delayed action to strengthen and improve the fire service. I am satisfied that a résumé, necessarily brief in these circumstances, will show that this is not so.
The work of improvement commenced with a comprehensive review of the service, and the legislative framework within which it operates, by a working party whose report was published in 1975. Following full consideration of the report and comment received thereon, mainly from local authorities, action has been initiated by my Department on all the principal recommendations made by the working party. Furthermore, to enable progress to be achieved as quickly as possible, the administrative and technical staff of the Fire Services Section has been expanded considerably.
The following are some of the more important measures which have been taken:
Detailed local reviews of the fire service have been initiated in all areas, with a view to identifying deficiencies so that remedial action could be taken.
The capital allocation for the fire service has been increased considerably — from £694,000 in 1977 to £2,500,000 this year.
The programme of central training courses for fire service personnel has been expanded.
A Fire Prevention Council have been set up to promote fire prevention measures generally.
A study has been completed on the need for improvement of fire service telecommunications and action has been initiated with a view to having the recommended improvements implemented.
Important guidelines have issued to local authorities on recruit training.
I should mention that personnel from the local fire service are giving valuable assistance to the Department in relation to many of these matters, which leads me to the comments which have been made on civil servants: I need hardly say that they are entirely without foundation.
Having made these points about what has been done, there is always room for improvement as in all areas of public administration. I will be bringing forward, as a matter of urgency, proposals for improving the law on the fire service, in particular in relation to fire prevention matters. Draft proposals for a Bill are at an advance stage. The heads of the Bill have been cleared with other Departments and I will be bringing the scheme of the Bill before my colleagues in the Cabinet within ten days.
As you will be aware, I have requested all city and county managers to arrange for immediate inspection of all potentially dangerous buildings, such as dance halls, discotheques, night clubs and other places of public entertainment in which large numbers of people may be placed at risk in the event of fire. I have also asked that any premises which do not meet fire safety requirements should be closed, under existing powers, pending the taking of remedial measures.
Draft Building Regulations were prepared in the Department and published on 29 November 1976. Copies were widely circulated by the Department to local authorities and to professional, administrative and trade bodies and comments were invited from interested parties within six months. A Government statement accompanying their publication said that, pending formal making of the regulations the draft would afford a valuable guide to those engaged in the design and construction of buildings and those in the local authority service concerned in that purpose.
As recently as last November, in a speech to the Royal Institute of Architects of Ireland, I asked the industry to continue to see the draft as a code of practice until such time as the final document had been prepared.
Requests were received that the time for comments — over 600 were received — be extended for a further period and these were granted up to 31 December 1977. Even with these extensions comments continue to be received, in particular on the method of implementation and control. The original technical draft, prepared by An Foras Forbartha, was not prepared in a legal form and a completely new draft had to be prepared to ensure that the regulations when made would be legally viable.
I now propose to issue within the next 10 days the draft of the regulations with amendments, and within six weeks to publish a revised version incorporating the amendments. I intend that they be used by local authorities, industrial and professional bodies in their operation, as if they had statutory backing. New legislation will be required to give statutory backing to the regulations and to provide a more flexible system of control. I have already initiated action on this enabling legislation and I will bring it before the House as quickly as possible.
I have met representatives of the Fire Prevention Council on a number of occasions during the past few days and in the light of the discussions I have now decided that a special task force will be immediately established under the direction of the present chairman of the council, Mr. Geoffrey Cronin. I intend that the task force will liaise closly with local authorities in the latter's role on fire prevention and keep me fully briefed. The head of the task force will report directly to me. It will also augment the efforts of the Fire Prevention Council on such matters as publicity, advertising, seminars, preparation of instruction leaflets, all aimed at increasing public awareness of fire hazards with particular reference to places of public entertainment. Further details of the work and composition of the task force will be announced later. I would like to take this opportunity to convey my thanks to Mr. Cronin for making his services available. A number of amendments put down seem to envisage a major and comprehensive review of the entire legislative and statutory provisions covering fire and public safety.
The Government are satisfied that such a major review should not be undertaken by a tribunal of this sort. The Government are influenced in this matter by the need in the interests of all those affected by the tragedy that the tribunal's findings should be available at the earliest possible date and that its progress should not be impeded by detailed investigation of the matters referred to in the amendments. The Government consider that these matters should be looked into in depth by a full-scale broadly-based commission of inquiry.
The Government have in mind, as a separate matter, the establishment of such a commission of inquiry.
To conclude I have no doubt that the House shares fully the Government's objectives in this matter and will lend its full support to this motion.