Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

If the Taoiseach or I walk into a shop today and purchase something, and we subsequently discover that it is faulty, we can return that item, have it exchanged or get our money back. However, if, like the home owners in Longboat Quay, one buys a house that was not built properly, the responsibility for making the property good rests with the purchaser. That is essentially what has happened here and it is, as the Taoiseach correctly says, grossly unfair and unacceptable.

The Taoiseach has a responsibility to address this issue. These scenarios have played out before and I fear we will see many more such cases. However, the question that arises for this particular woman, who is from just one of the families affected, is "What happens next?" She has been asked, at short notice, to put her hands on €18,000. She does not have that money nor does she have the prospect of it. Failure to come up with it means that she, along with her young family, will be evacuated. That is the position.

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