Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. O'Connor and his staff for their presentations. As Sinn Féin spokesperson on housing I have been monitoring and working with the PRB since its establishment.

Why do we accept only certain areas or counties are affected? There are issues also in Louth and Donegal but we have specified certain areas. I find that unusual and the Minister has included other areas in Rathdown and south County Dublin. When legislation is introduced we should not specify areas and leave others outside the loop.

We have other issues now. It is not pyrite heave but in Donegal problems have arisen with cement in the brickwork. How many houses has the board done at this stage? Is it five? I thought it was a lot more than that. What cost is each unit on average? I know figures of €20,000, €30,000 and €40,000 were mentioned. How does the red, amber and green warning system work, how are the more serious cases approached and how does one work to the next level. HomeBond refused to engage with the committee here previously; I know it has signed up to this but the amount of money is very small. The committee requested that HomeBond attend meetings but it refused to engage. It is disappointing for everyone it adopted that position - it is getting off very lightly in terms of its contribution.

Reference was made to pursuing builders and developers. Is any progress being made on that? The reality is many have refused to pay. They blame the quarries. Whether it is the quarries that have ultimate responsibility, the way things were monitored at the quarries has been a big problem. The problems are mainly to the north side of Dublin, stretching up the country. Have the quarries come up to standard do we know? Have they put in place mechanisms to check the material in a proper fashion? We had the people from the quarries in the south - they had far better procedures in places than some of the quarries we have seen involved here.