The Green Party today called on the Minister for the Environment Alan Kelly to intervene and assist householders with fire improvement works in Dublin's Longboat Quay development. They also called for changes in the law so that the problem of 'light touch regulation' does not arise in future.Speaking today, Green Party City Councillor Ciarán Cuffe said: “Local Authorities must be mandated to inspect buildings at every stage of the construction process to ensure that fire safety and other breaches of the Building Regulations do not occur. This is what happens in Northern Ireland and it should be the case here.“The changes brought in Building Regulations introduced by Phil Hogan two years ago were a step backwards in terms of oversight of the building process. It placed an unfair burden on construction professionals to sign off on every aspect of construction, and let the State off the hook.“This has meant that construction costs have risen and cowboy builders are still getting away with it. In addition under Alan Kelly's watch the light touch regulation has continued with his changes that exempt one-off housing from the rigours of the law.“In the short-term the State must assist the residents of Longboat Quay, but within this Dáil term the Government should change the Building Control legislation so that Priory Hall and Longboat Quay mark the end rather than the beginning of poor quality construction.”Local Green Party Councillor Claire Byrne, who has tabled an emergency motion on the issue ahead of tonight’s meeting of Dublin City Council, called for a multi-agency approach to solve the problem.“I attended the meeting with the residents last week. I think it is scandalous that the residents of Longboat Quay are being left to deal with the hangover of the bad planning regulations of the Celtic Tiger years. It is unacceptable that the residents should be left with one of two choices: pay close €20,000 each, or be evicted. DCC, DDDA, Nama and the Government need to intervene and help the residents as a matter of urgency. They have responsibility not to just manage the assets of developers, but to help the people of the City.“I, along with my Green Party colleagues in DCC have tabled an emergency motion for consideration at tonight's Council meeting at 6.15pm in City Hall. Hopefully this will put pressure on all agencies to resolve this issue.”ENDSThe Emergency Motion tabled by Cllr. Byrne reads as follows:"In the light of ongoing failures in Longboat Quay, Priory Hall and elsewhere to comply with Building Regulations and Fire Safety that this Council calls for:-greater enforcement on building control and fire safety by this local authority during and after construction-financial assistance from the Department of the Environment, Communities and Local Government to assist in remediation works, particularly for those on lower incomes, and who have purchased their homes under the Affordable Homes Scheme.-legislative changes to compel local authorities to inspect buildings during construction to ensure that they satisfy building and fire codes as is the case in Northern Ireland."