Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We are debating legislation to give effect to what can only be described as a builders' bonanza, but what Fianna Fáil has named a help-to-buy scheme.

As we know, all of the available evidence points to the fact that this scheme will increase house prices and young families' level of debt, while also increasing profits for the building industry. The census figures for this year indicate that Dublin Fingal - my constituency - with a population growth rate of 8.1% since 2011, is the fastest-growing constituency in the State. This population increase demonstrates the absolute need to ensure an adequate housing supply and rent certainty not only in my constituency but in other constituencies, none of which this Government has provided for or plans to provide for. This Bill is proof of that. I meet people every day who are desperate to purchase homes in my community but owing to crippling high rents they cannot save for a deposit. The Government's help-to-buy scheme has forced up the price of new homes and far from helping people to buy it is putting homes even further from their reach. I do not know how a person is expected to save for a deposit if living in Swords and paying €1,400 per month in rent or living in Skerries and paying €1,300 or €1,400 per month in rent. It is not going to happen and that is unacceptable.

In this give-away budget, no thought was given to the type of homes that will be bankrolled by the help-to-buy scheme. I say this because the area I represent is, as I am sure the Minister of State, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, is aware, affected by pyrite. Families and young couples, first-time buyers who paid large sums of money for their homes, now find those homes effectively rendered worthless. Some are in limbo in that they can neither sell their houses nor extend them to reflect their changing circumstances. Burdened with negative equity and houses with no resale potential and often little chance of remediation, these people found no hope or comfort in the budget. I have already addressed directly with the Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan, the issue of exemption from local property tax for home owners whose properties are affected by pyrite. Unfortunately, I have had very little positive outcome in that regard.

I would like now to draw the attention of the Minister of State to another issue which I believe should be given consideration if the Government is serious about helping these people. Budget 2017 provides for €22 million to fund the pyrite remediation scheme. The Government has said that this is a clear signal of the importance it attaches to addressing the issue of pyrite remediation. It has been said that this fund will facilitate the remediation of approximately 400 dwellings under the scheme in 2017. If, however, the Government is serious about the importance it attaches to addressing this issue, I can recommend a course of action that will go a long way towards addressing the struggles facing many home owners, particularly in the constituency of Fingal.

The Minister of State will be aware that it is a condition of eligibility under the pyrite remediation scheme that an application to the Pyrite Resolution Board must be accompanied by a building condition assessment with a damage condition rating of 2. This means that many households are locked out of the scheme and stuck in limbo. They have to pay privately to have their houses tested but if the house does not have a damage condition rating of 2 they cannot seek reimbursement of that cost. It should be borne in mind that these people are the squeezed middle rather than people on salaries of €70,000 plus. These homes have pyrite damage. The home owners could not have known that their houses were pyrite affected when they bought them. To get the remediation work done, the house must have a particular level of damage. These people will never be able to sell their homes or recoup the value of them because of pyrite damage. We can all agree on that. They are effectively stuck between a rock and a hard place. All they can do is wait until the pyritic damage worsens. Rather than being able to have the problem addressed when the property is assessed as having grade 1 damage, they have to wait until it worsens to qualify for the scheme. Responses to parliamentary questions to the Minister are to the effect that the Pyrite Resolution Board has advised that seven dwellings which had a damage condition rating of 1 when their building condition assessments were first completed and, as such, were refused under the pyrite remediation scheme, have now progressed to a damage condition rating of 2. Damage condition ratings are moving from 1 to 2 but meanwhile people have to live in these homes. Many of these houses have cracks running up the walls yet these people have to wait until such time as the damage condition reaches level 2 before they can have the problem addressed. That is no way for anybody to live. Damage could be progressing without the knowledge of the board. Many families have been left disenfranchised by this because the damage to their homes is not bad enough or they do not have the money to have their homes assessed.

This group of people were encouraged at the time to get themselves onto the property ladder and so they bought starter homes. They are now left with houses riddled with pyrite and no recourse to remediation. There is much talk about the help-to-buy scheme and helping people to stay in their homes and so on. However, where is the help for the people who have a damage condition rating of 1, negative equity and starter homes which have now become their "forever" homes and which, perhaps, not accommodate their families? These people are stuck in houses in which the damage might potentially worsen, and probably will, and have been effectively rendered useless. There could be pyrite in their gardens and so they cannot extend. They bought the houses that they believed were going to be their starter homes. They did so to get on the proper ladder and in the hope that they would later have an opportunity to move up the ladder. They now find themselves stuck. There is nothing in budget 2017 for these people.

I have placed a motion on the Order Paper which I hope all Deputies, and most especially those in my constituency who have heard the stories at first hand, will be able to support. The Minister of State will be aware that I could not table legislation owing to a potential cost on the Exchequer. Now that this issue has been brought to his attention, I hope that he will find a way to help these people. I believe they have done nothing wrong. They bought houses at a time when property prices were rising. They scrambled to get themselves onto the property ladder and bought small to medium-sized modest houses. They now have to wait and hope that the damage to their homes will graduate from grade 1 to grade 2 so that they can claim compensation, which seems very wrong. They are stuck in their homes. They cannot extend because they might be pyrite in their gardens. They are effectively in limbo. I do not think that is any way for people to have to live.

I have brought this issue to the Minister of State's attention. As already stated, I have tabled a motion on the Order Paper for which I will be seeking support. I hope that, in the meantime, the Minister of State will find a way to help these families in distress.

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