Needless deaths can be avoided with carbon monoxide alarms, says Quinn in new Bill

The Government has accepted legislation by Independent Senator Feargal Quinn requiring the installation of carbon monoxide alarms in certain homes, to reduce the “recurring, needless and avoidable deaths”.

Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan accepted the second stage of the Building Control (carbon monoxide detection) Bill and said he would bring amendments at committee stage. Some elements included in the Bill are already set to become part of building control regulations and the Minister said he wanted to avoid duplication.

Singer Honor Heffernan, whose mother and sister died 10 years ago from carbon monoxide poisoning, sat in the visitors’ gallery during the debate.

Introducing the Bill, Mr Quinn said that “year after year, deaths from carbon monoxide are reported in the media and families of victims appeal for people to wise up to the dangers”. Those calls “are invariably echoed by coroners who call on society to install carbon monoxide alarms”.

“In the face of recurring, needless and avoidable deaths, it is now time for us as legislators to provide a reasonable and workable solution which obliges people to take steps to protect themselves.”

Under the legislation, homes with an open fire, stove or boiler will be required to install an alarm in bedrooms. The NUI Senator said, however, that this would be required only when a home went up for sale or rent or where a new or replacement open fire, stove or boiler was installed.

TCD Senator Seán Barrett said the installations “would represent quite a low cost per life saved”.

The Minister said HSE data for 2000 to 2010 showed 73 fatalities from carbon monoxide poisoning. This averaged six death a year “that could potentially have been preventable”. Indications were that the majority of such fatalities “appear to occur with solid fuel appliances, while gas and oil are deemed to be safest”.

Cáit Keane (FG) welcomed the Bill and suggested that before everybody installed monitors they should put plants in their homes that absorbed carbon monoxide from the air.