Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

While I appreciate the Taoiseach's recognition that we need a supervisory authority, the fact is local authority building control is greatly underfunded. In many cases claims against builders are statute barred because defects were not noticed by home owners in the legally stipulated period and there are still no solutions for people whose homes were built pre-2014.

The huge legislative gap which exists in this area more than five years after Priory Hall is staggering. How many times must this issue rear its ugly head before the people who are affected by it have some level of certainty about the relief they can seek? Are they forever to be reliant on a Government which acts in an ad hocwait-to-see manner? These are people's homes and it should be a `Government priority that if anything happens to people’s homes, they should not be left in limbo. The Government’s housing plan is called Rebuilding Ireland. Let us make sure we do it right this time. The Taoiseach should initiate a review of previous housing failures and ensure home owners have somewhere to turn for relief from the mistakes of developers.

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