Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The problem is not the new standard. The changes in it, although we have not seen it, will alter the situation a little for some people. However, it will not correct the fundamental flaws with the scheme. I know that the Minister of State knows that there are hundreds of people in his constituency who are suffering because of this issue. Having raised the issue at every Question Time involving the Minister, I went to the trouble of drafting legislation to replace the present scheme with one that is based on remediation or certification. The idea is that the scheme, if a house could not be remediated or did not require remediation, would offer a certificate so that the owner could move on with his or her life. I was prevented from even giving that Bill a reading on the grounds that it would involve a cost on the Exchequer even though we had carried out a huge amount of work on it. In other words, the only people who can change the scheme are those in government. Backbenchers will be prevented from proposing legislation on this issue. This is urgent. The flaw in the scheme is that it was based on damage rather than the presence of pyrite. This means that someone whose house has pyrite and is therefore valueless but is not deemed to have enough damage to be remediated is left in total limbo. It is simply unacceptable. These are the victims of the housing bubble that led in essence to the housing crisis. It cannot go on.

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