Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State, Deputy Coffey, is familiar with this issue. He would have seen for himself the impact of mica in terms of defective blocks in homes in Donegal.

The scale of this, in terms of the amount of homes affected, is not fully known at this stage but the impact is clear. There are families this evening in my county who are literally living in terror that their ceiling or gable wall would collapse on top of them such is the seriousness of this issue. There are also families in Donegal this evening who cannot insure their homes because of this problem.

My colleague, Councillor Albert Doherty, has relentlessly pushed Donegal County Council to carry out testing on some of the housing stock in the county and a preliminary engineer's report has unfortunately found that mica is impacting on the homes that were tested. There is a lot more work to be done, but it is a serious development and confirms the worst fears of many within the county.

I understand that preliminary engineer's report has been sent on to the Department and I welcome the news that the Minister has established an independent panel of experts, but here is my concern. Earlier I looked through the 200-page report and 20 recommendations of the panel of experts which dealt with the pyrite issue. Is the Minister reinventing the wheel? Have they not set a strong template? How long will this independent panel of experts take to report back?

I have met the families of which I speak in their homes. I attended a public meeting where they told their story. They are literally living in terror that the ceiling above them or the gable wall beside them will collapse on top of them. Their homes are not insured. The banks are not taking responsibility. Such is the seriousness of this issue. They cannot wait, perhaps for years, for an independent panel to report. We need urgent action.

I repeat the call of my party on the Minister to introduce a mica muscovite redress Bill as soon as possible over the summer recess, to bring that Bill before the Houses in the autumn and to implement a mica redress scheme, as this Government has done rightly for those families affected by the issue of pyrite. The impact is similar. Of course, these are separate deficiencies that affect the structure of the home but, if one looks at the 20 recommendations of the panel established on pyrite, I imagine they would almost all apply to this issue of mica.

The Department had submitted blocks for testing. What was the outcome of those tests? Did they confirm the presence of mica in the blocks that were tested?

In terms of this panel of experts that the Minister will establish, is it reinventing the wheel? Is there a danger that it would drag on for far too long? What was the outcome of the tests on the blocks that the Department has done? Finally, what can the Minister do about the insurance companies which will not insure families in Donegal as we speak?

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