Clare Daly (Dublin North, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

Like the other Deputies, I believe Priory Hall has become a symbol of what is best and worst in Irish society. We have a community of young families and parents banding together in solidarity to try to secure basic human rights in Ireland in 2012, but we also have a society which is effectively ignoring them, from the Government to the local authority to the banks and other agencies.

Like Deputy Broughan, I was there on Saturday and the deterioration in the structure since we were there a number of months ago is substantial. There is no going back. These people will not end up back in the community and nor should they be expected to return there. The only solution is to take it down and allow these people to rebuild their lives. It is an indictment of the banks, many of them publicly owned, that these people, who are evacuees from their homes living in inadequate accommodation which they cannot call their own, continue to pay mortgages for their property which is a health hazard. Some people have secured a moratorium but the interest is increasing. We as taxpayers, a Government and a Parliament who own these banks must step in. The mortgages should be transferred to a property of the choosing of the residents, be it in NAMA or somewhere else. Priory Hall is no more and these people will not return there.

I agree with the other Deputies that it is unacceptable that the Minister, Deputy Hogan, hid behind a court case between Mr. McFeely and Dublin City Council. It had nothing to do with the residents so he could have met them. After this he hid behind the conciliation process. This is not good enough. The Minister, Deputy Hogan, should meet the residents because the State is complicit. Successive Governments stood over self-certification and inadequate regulation and, crucially, inadequate enforcement. There will be no solution unless the Government takes ownership of this. In fairness, on Saturday residents were extremely critical of the role of the Government and the political establishment. To my mind they are correct. We need to take action. One year is far too long. This has become a symbol of other developments and it should not be happening here or anywhere else.

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