One Year of New Fire Safety Regulation

It has been twelve months since the 1 May 2025 commencement of both the Building Regulations (Part B Amendment) Regulations 2024 and the Building Control (Amendment) Regulations 2025. Alongside the PSA changes that came into effect later in 2025, this period represents the most significant shift in Ireland's fire and security regulatory landscape in more than a decade. This anniversary edition takes stock of what is now the legal baseline.

A premises operating in Ireland today sits inside a fire and security regulatory environment defined, in essence, by the following pillars:

Building Regulations (Part B Amendment) Regulations 2024. In force from 1 May 2025, accompanied by Technical Guidance Document B 2024, Volume 1, for buildings other than dwelling houses. Key features include updated guidance on external fire spread, internal compartmentation, and the new Section B12 obligation to provide active fire safety system information to building owners at completion.

Building Control (Amendment) Regulations 2025 (S.I. No. 56 of 2025). In force from 1 May 2025. Introduces formal high hazard and normal hazard classifications for industrial and storage buildings, redefines care facility buildings and places of assembly, and expands when a Fire Safety Certificate or commencement notice is required.

Employment Regulation Order, in effect from 22 July 2025. Sets the minimum rate of pay for adult workers in the private security sector at €15.41 per hour, amending S.I. No. 319 of 2024. Compliance with the ERO is a condition of PSA licensing under PSA28:2013.

In our practical experience working with Irish businesses over the last year, a few patterns stand out.

First, many building owners were unprepared for Section B12. Active fire safety system documentation that would once have ended up in a folder at the end of a project now needs to be assembled, indexed, and handed over in a form the owner can actually use. The clients who treated this as a procurement requirement from the start of their projects have ended up with materially better records.

Second, the expansion of FSC requirements has caught out some industrial and storage operators carrying out what they considered routine alterations. Subdividing a warehouse, adding mezzanine floor area, or changing the goods stored on site can now trigger certification requirements that did not previously apply.

Third, on the PSA side, ongoing enforcement continues to push out installers operating without appropriate licensing in CCTV, intruder, and access control. Asking your security maintainer for evidence of their current PSA status is now a sensible part of the annual review.

If you are responsible for fire or security compliance at your premises, the following questions are a good starting point for the next twelve months:

• Has your building's fire strategy been reviewed against the post 2025 framework?
• Do you hold a B12 compliant information pack for any active fire safety systems installed since 1 May 2025?
• Are any planned alterations likely to trigger a Fire Safety Certificate under the 2025 Regulations?
• Do all of your security contractors hold current PSA licences in the right categories?

Where any of these questions raises doubt, a competent fire safety professional and a PSA licensed contractor should be engaged to confirm the position.

ADS Group is a PSA licensed security contractor and a fire safety specialist, working with clients across Ireland and the UK on bespoke fire and life safety solutions. We do not certify fire safety design, and we will always recommend that overall fire strategy is signed off by a competent fire safety professional, but we make sure the systems we install and maintain are documented, commissioned, and handed over in a way that supports compliance with the 2025 framework.