Mary Fitzpatrick (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their presentations and submissions. As the Chairman said, as new committee members, we were very keen to address this issue early in our work programme. It has to be every homeowner's worst nightmare to find, having finally bought a home, that the security of the property has been undermined, not knowing how badly it has been undermined or how much at risk it is. I am a former city councillor and I am also from Dublin city. It is very important, not just for the individual homeowners, that this issue is urgently addressed by the Government.

For the city's development and urban development generally we have to take real and decisive action to re-establish some level of confidence in apartment living in dense residential high-rise buildings and offer some security to homeowners and society at large.

The Government has committed to quite a tight timescale. It aims to have the working group established and for it to have reported by July of next year so that the work can then feed into the budget of the following year. I presume that the groups are ready to engage with that process. It was mentioned that they have already had discussions with the Minister. I would be interested to know what feedback the Minister has given it in terms of the timelines. I suggest that the committee write to the Minister after this meeting and advise him that we have met and are seeking the urgent establishment of a working committee so that the timelines in the programme for Government can be met.

I can understand why homeowners do not want to self-identify their properties as being at risk of fire or being affected by other safety issues. The establishment of some form of register of affected properties will be critical to dealing with this issue so that there is transparency. Homeowners will only be willing to do that when they know there will be support for them in responding to the issues identified. When the witnesses reply, perhaps they could talk about how ready homeowners are to participate in that process and if it is likely that some form of register of affected properties can be established.

Until we can quantify the legacy issues, we cannot deal with them and have some form of redress. I accept the point Ms Cottier and the members of the Construction Defects Alliance are making on the redress having to remove the burdens from, rather than adding an additional burden to, homeowners. The focus of the working group needs to be on ensuring that all future construction works avoid the mistakes of the past, that controls are put in place and that certification and regulations are robust and enforced.