‘No such thing as a ban’ on chimneys, says senior Mayo County Council official

COUNTY councillors in Mayo have been told that there is ‘no such thing’ as a ban on chimneys.

Under building regulations introduced in 2014, the construction of chimneys in new dwellings has been severely curtailed.

Monday’s meeting of Mayo County Council heard that people living in houses without chimneys had to move houses after they lost their electricity during Storm Éowyn.

Carrowholly-based county councillor John O’Malley tabled a motion before the meeting calling for the government to relax the regulations to allow chimneys to be built on new houses.

Cllr O’Malley (Independent) said that the relevant Government minister should address the matter before Mayo County Council if necessary.

“We’ve had two bad storms in a couple of months, and the electricity went, and it will happen again,” said Cllr O’Malley. “We’ll be without electricity, and there is nothing wrong with people having solid fuel there ready to put into a fire to keep them warm. It’s common sense in my opinion.”

Snugboro-based councillor Ger Deere seconded Cllr O’Malley’s motion, saying it ‘makes total sense’ to amend the ‘ridiculous stipulation’ regarding chimneys.

Cllr Deere said that people would have died had they not had access to solid fuel during the power outages caused by the storm.

“I know in my own neighbourhood, elderly people who were without electricity for a number of days and families and kids with disabilities and illnesses, they had to go to their neighbour’s house where there is an open fire.”

The Fine Gael councillor said that grants should be available for converter switches to allow people to use generators during a power outage.

Cllr Brendan Mulroy (Fianna Fáil) also expressed support for Cllr O’Malley’s motion.

“Fire’s being on saved people’s lives, there is no doubt about that,” said the Westport-based councillor.

Cllr Chris Maxwell, a turf-cutter based in Louisburgh, said that chimneys were ‘a necessity in rural Ireland’.

The Independent Ireland councillor said it would be ‘a great idea’ to use timber felled by Storm Éowyn as solid fuel, adding that it would ‘tidy up the countryside’.

“There is a massive amount of that down now, and it is an eyesore around the place, and it has to be gotten rid of,” he said.

Catherine McConnell, Mayo County Council’s Director of Services for Planning, said that the prohibition on chimneys was due to building regulations and not a matter for council planners.

Ms McConnell added that there was ‘no such thing as a ban’ on chimneys in houses.

“There has never been a situation where a planning notification has removed a chimney or said you can’t have it,” she explained. “But in order to build your house according to the building regulations, you may have to provide evidence of air tightness…that’s not a ban. There is no such thing as a ban on a fire.”

Cllr Blackie Gavin (Fianna Fáil) said there was nothing to stop homeowners boring a hole in a wall in their house to install a flu or a stove in their house.