Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will finish up on this. I appreciate that. One of the Cabinet sub-committees the Taoiseach oversees is on housing, which is a major issue in my own county and throughout the State. We have an additional issue that impacts on the housing crisis in County Donegal, which is defective blocks. The Government’s scheme is simply not working. There were 1,300 people at a meeting, packed to the rafters, out on the street, unable to get into the venue because the venue was not big enough. We do not have a venue big enough in County Donegal to host the number of families that would tell the Taoiseach the scheme is not working if he was there. This is placing serious pressure on families. We have crumbling walls and buildings. However, mental health has also broken down, families have broken apart as a result of this and some people are no longer with us as a result of the issue of defective blocks.

The penny is not dropping with the Government. The Taoiseach talks about a 100% scheme and so forth. There would not be a single person in that room – indeed at a different meeting in County Mayo about 500 people turned up – if there was a 100% scheme. These individuals know it does not work for them. Yesterday, we had State apologies relating to a case where the State did wrong. I do not wish to equate what happened in that case, which was absolutely horrific, and how the State and successive Governments treated that issue, but we have crumbling lives right across the west coast and elsewhere. These people need Government support. They need the Government to walk with them at this time, not face them down. If they were here, sitting in front of the Taoiseach, they would tell him that is what they face with the Government. The Taoiseach will rightly say that this is a huge scheme, a huge amount of money, all of which is true. However, if it does not work, it does not work. The Taoiseach did not have an interaction with this scheme until now but he sat at Cabinet and signed off on it. He has seen the protests. He had his fingers on this. This scheme has to change really urgently. I am making this point to the Taoiseach, and I will take him around houses in County Donegal, invite him to sit down with people who are in their 60s and talk to them about where they will get the €60,000 or €70,000 that he expects them to get, in order to rebuild their homes.

We can talk about families who are living in caravans. A mother who talked to me and my party leader showed us the tablets that she takes every day because of her mental health. This is a woman who used to have her own business. She was an entrepreneur in Donegal. Her child is studying for a State examination. She talked about how, after dropping her children to school, she drives 3 km to a little lake where she sits and cries until she gets the strength again to pull herself together because she does not want her daughters to see the way that their mum feels. It is unbelievable, what is happening. These individuals need to see light at the end of the tunnel. I am telling the Taoiseach now that this scheme is not working and it will have to be fixed by somebody. We are committed to a 100% scheme and that is fine. I am not trying to make politics out of this issue because I know these individuals and some of them are my relations. It is horrifying, what is happening. These houses are going to collapse. I was at a house a fortnight ago and the blocks crumbled in my hand. There are kids in those houses. One family is demolishing their house at the minute. The individual sat on the roof and when he put his foot to the chimney it just fell. Why did it fall? If fell because it has defective blocks and is like Weetabix. A gale or gust of wind could do the same thing and a child could be underneath it and we would all be talking about the terrible tragedy. We know this is happening, the houses are unsafe, the scheme does not work and the Government needs to get its act together. I will leave it at that.