Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

My amendment is to insert a new section 87, but it actually relates to section 86, so I will deal with both together. The amendment relates to the impact on construction of the defective concrete block levy, in particular the impact it would have on construction costs, on the viability and the affordability of housing products and on the cost of remediation for home owners affected by defective concrete products.

We have discussed this at the different stages over the three days of the Finance Bill 2022 in terms of the impact that the no-touch, loose touch and light touch regulations during the Celtic tiger period had on thousands of homes and, more importantly, in terms of the effect that it has had on the thousands of individuals right across the counties of Donegal, Mayo, Limerick, Sligo and so many other counties that have now been affected by it. It is difficult to put into words the impact this is having on so many people's lives. For some people, it is not yet having a huge impact, but they are saying they know it is in front of them. They see what colleagues or people they have now come to know are going through. Yet, they know the cracks will appear. They know that when the cracks appear in the wall, they will be more than just cracks on concrete or on blocks and that it will have a bigger impact.

I have had the pleasure, if I can use that word, to be invited into the homes of some of those who have been affected, as have many politicians from across the political divide. I genuinely believe this is one of these cases where it is nearly impossible to understand it until one is there oneself and is standing in a sitting room, in a bedroom of a child or in a house and seeing that what once was a living room is now a bedroom with a mattress on a floor and what once was a living room is now really a bedsit, because everything takes place in there because the kitchen is no longer functional, the bedroom is full of damp and mould and because much of the activity has to take place in the one room that may be left or that is not as impacted as the rest. I am extremely worried and I want to say - in fairness, the campaigners have said this - that I hope that this will not come to pass, but from looking at the state of some of those houses-----