Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chairman and thank Mr. Murphy for allowing us to take part in the Murphy family reunion.

This is about mica in County Donegal and pyrite in County Mayo. The Chairman has described it pretty well. It is affecting houses and they are literally crumbling. Over the past week I have been struck by the horrific situation unfolding in Miami which was getting all this attention, but houses are crumbling and falling because of this. Literally as we speak, a homeowners' group has gathered with Department officials to try to work through a plan. We are looking to Europe as well in terms of standards and joining us to stand up for homeowners. I know it is not necessarily an ombudsman thing but as the Chairman said, Mr. Murphy may be able to direct us. It has been raised at the petitions committee that European citizens are watching their homes, that they have worked incredibly hard for, crumble beneath them for no reason other than that they were unfortunate enough to buy concrete blocks from a particular place. That is how random it was. One part of the Murphy family may not have a problem and their cousins might have a problem and they might be living next door to each other. That is how random it is.

As the Chairman has said, we are just looking for a signpost on it. These are European citizens who have been phenomenally let down. Thankfully, so far we have had, touch wood, no major incidents but that is only through the grace of God. We are just looking for signposting on it and a signal there is an awareness of this because it is affecting people here. The cladding issue is beginning to take off. The UK is no longer a member state but I suspect the cladding issue we are seeing in London now will start to become apparent in many more cities as well. Building defects and defects from rushed construction will become a European issue and will come to the Court of Auditors because I am sure there are publicly funded projects that have defective building products and materials within them. That will become an issue with European projects, the funding of same and the funding for replacing them. I thank the Chairman.