Ms Martina Hegarty:

My home was built using defective concrete blocks in Mayo. I thank the committee for the opportunity to present.

Over a year ago, I joined this committee to document and discuss the failings of our Government to provide a fit-for-purpose defective concrete block scheme for homeowners in County Mayo - a redress scheme, not a grant. A year on, we are still discussing a defective scheme.

Today, I am not here as a campaigner or a homeowner representative. My purpose is to place members in the mindset of a homeowner - a person who is experiencing the mental and physical anguish of living with a defective home. I will keep this basic so everyone can follow.

You live each day seeing cracks in your home. You do not want to admit you have pyrite. You do not want to have to give up your home. Your life was built in these four walls. Your memories are here. There is a significant level of traumatic experience to come to the acceptance that your home has pyrite before you make that first phone call.

Do members realise that? None of us were ever supposed to be here.

Those of us who applied onto the previous scheme are told to sit, wait and have patience. After more than ten years of singing from the rooftops about the need for a defective scheme, we are told to have patience. A year after the scheme was rushed through the Dáil with no meaningful amendments from the Government, we are told to have patience. We are told the scheme is 100%, yet every single homeowner who has done the calculations is going to be paying in part to rebuild their homes.

The enhanced scheme was put into law on Monday, 3 July. The scheme was opened by the local authorities on 11 July. There was practically no announcement. A scheme of more than €2.2 billion was almost rolled out in the dead of night. The enhanced scheme was supposed to fix everything but instead it has created more roadblocks for homeowners.

Homeowners must sit, wait and watch their cracks widen until they reach a certain level to reach a meaningless damage threshold that has no interest in science. Homeowners asked to use a building professional to assess their home - individuals with no training, the vast majority of whom, without this experience, would consider some of our cracks incorrectly as settlement cracks. Homeowners no longer have an engineer in their corner - the one person homeowners could rely on to fight for their home. That is what this feels like. We are in constant fight mode - constant battle - to get what is needed to rebuild our homes and move on with our lives. Homeowners are relying on the impartiality of the engineers contracted to the Housing Agency to decide the fate of their homes. Will the science still be considered as priority? Homes in Mayo require full demolition and almost 400 homes have received this to date. Will this continue? We are not convinced.

If a homeowner needs to appeal, will they receive everything they need to do so, such as all of the test results and details of all those that made decisions? Who sits on the appeals panel? How transparent will this be?

Homeowners are required to project-manage the rebuild of their homes by collecting endless paperwork; contacting the local authorities; dealing with an online application; sourcing engineers, architects and builders; dealing with banks and insurance companies; and, worst of all, finding a location to rent in the midst of a housing crisis. How?

A homeowner is at the mercy of builder availability - builders who think we have a pot of gold and have been informed by the Government that each homeowner is getting 100%. In addition, these builders are under the false impression that each homeowner is going to have €420,000 available to them to rebuild their homes.

Homeowners have to ensure they can fund the rebuild of their home, yet they are under a timeline to do so. Homeowners have to apply for finance, many of whom are above the age and ability to be able to pay it back. Why do they have to apply for finance? Because it is not 100%.

There is a 10% retention. How will this work for a grant on offer to homeowners when it is not 100%? What happens when the builders come knocking or walk off site?

A homeowner is told he or she can apply to the SEAI, which is a separate process that requires further investigation and paperwork. That scheme is not open yet, but the Government wants people to move on and rebuild their homes. Worst of all, people are left in constant fear of what lies beneath, given that foundations are a major issue and are not covered by the scheme.

We have yet to hear the word "retrospective" mentioned. By this, I mean retrospective for those who had to remediate their homes prior to any scheme being launched. We heard commitments to deliver. Were those more soundbites? The Government continues to refer to the need for homeowners to move on. Has anyone taken the time to reach out to those who have already tried to see how much it cost them to rebuild their homes? A quote is at one point in time. The reality of the quote being delivered at cost is little to none. Was this even considered?

Have members listened to every point I have listed? They should now place themselves in the shoes of a pensioner, of a young mother with young kids or of those who require medical or physical assistance. How do they progress onto the scheme? How do they become project managers? How do they fund this? The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and the Housing Agency have decided to take control of every aspect of the scheme without the control that matters most. They are fully aware it is not 100%, which is the reason the scheme is not end to end. They know that they would need to offer more funds if they were to rebuild our homes. This scheme, after the second time of creation and more than ten years of fighting, has done nothing more than condemn homeowners to a bleak future, to building on faulty foundations, to homes that will not be fully remediated, and to debt. While the Government is waiting, assessing and seeking more information for the scheme to evolve, homeowners are being hospitalised and are on endless medication. Does the Government understand the mental torture homeowners are under? No dial-up service is going to remedy that. Did any of the committee’s members ever take the time to walk a step in the shoes of a defective concrete block homeowner? Did anyone ever think of the homeowners while this scheme was being created? Why are the most vulnerable families involved in this crisis not placed front and centre and enabled? Why do they continue to be condemned?

I thank the committee for its time.