Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

My first question is for Mr. Parlon. I want to talk about the costs and the question of who pays. I will start with mica. I agree 100% with the points that have been raised by Ms Hone. The mica homeowners are entitled to every penny that will be paid to them under this scheme and then some because the scheme falls significantly short of fully covering the costs. The figure we have for now is €2.7 billion. Then there is a bill for pyrite and then there will be the bill for the defective apartments. Nobody is in a position to say what the final figure will be but between mica and pyrite, even before the full bill for the apartment defects is finalised, it will be well over the €5 billion mark.

The question arises of who pays for that. We are being told that the 5% contribution will amount to €32 million. Let us suppose that not a penny of that €32 million is passed on to homeowners and it is entirely paid for from the industry, which will not happen. That would mean €32 million would come from the industry and presumably the bulk of the rest would come from the taxpayer. When we talk about the taxpayer we are overwhelmingly talking about the PAYE taxpayer.

My question for Mr. Parlon is as follows. What does he think is a fair division for covering the costs of that €5 billion plus bill between the construction industry; the suppliers of the blocks; the banks, which are part of the mix; the insurance industry, which is part of the mix; and the PAYE taxpayers? It looks like a maximum of €32 million will come from the industry and approximately €5 billion will come from the taxpayer, which no one would agree is a fair division of the costs. What would the Construction Industry Federation think would be a fair division of the costs?