Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I am grateful for the opportunity to speak specifically to amendment No. 165. When speaking to the amendment the Minister stated that it would be premature to accept it. That is very hard for the people in Mayo who have been fighting for ten years to have their houses restored. It is not premature for them. As the Minister is aware, they have had ten years of anguish and watching their homes and lives crumble, physically and mentally, around them. The question is who is responsible and who is accountable. We all want to find that out. We cannot have this monumental disaster and nobody is responsible for it. This amendment gives an opportunity to address the issue in terms of producing a report. All I ask is for a report to look at the introduction of levies against certain financial institutions, construction companies and insurance undertakings. We must remember that mortgages are being paid to financial institutions on all of these properties that are worth zero, but the mortgages have not reduced in any way. A profit is being made by the banks and financial institutions on the back of these crumbling homes, and the amendment seeks to address that.

There is also a responsibility on the construction companies and the sources of the materials that were supplied to the innocent people who have become the victims of this scandal. They must also be accountable. The insurance companies were quite willing to take in the premiums, as they are for all homes, and then they run for the hills when something goes wrong. Something has gone drastically wrong here. All these people are asking for is the restoration of their properties. My colleague, Deputy Mac Lochlainn, outlined the concerns we have about 100% redress and also the guarantees that must be provided, in addition to the other issues. I commend the working group for the work it has done, but it did not report back when it was supposed to in September. We are now six weeks or less from Christmas and these families are still left with uncertainty.

I urge the Minister to support the amendment to show that he is on the side of the homeowners and the citizens of this country by accepting it and showing that he is serious about looking for accountability. I reiterate the calls for the Minister to meet some of the homeowners. They are very realistic, down-to-earth, normal, ordinary people who are fighting for their homes and families and for redress. We do not call it compensation because they can never be compensated for what has happened to them through no fault of their own. We should ask for a contribution. This has happened before. We must ask if we have learned anything from the crash.

It was the hard-working citizens of this country who paid for the crash, the recklessness of the banking sector and what happened in that situation. It is not too much for us to ask today for a report to be done on seeking a contribution from those who were responsible, whether it is the developers, the construction companies or the financial institutions. That is all this amendment would do.