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

The week before last, on promised legislation, I raised the plight of homeowners residing in defective buildings and their urgent need for State assistance. Their situation is so worrying - in some developments it is escalating - that I must raise it again today. I recently met with homeowners in my constituency of Dublin Rathdown who have received their first bills for remedial works that are only necessary as a result of poor construction. Along with these substantial bills came the pre-emptive threat of legal proceedings being instituted if bills are not paid by a specific deadline. Recently, they have received follow-up warning letters threatening that they will be hauled before the courts of justice if they do not pay. In the latest sickening phase of their plight they are being pushed up against the wall and asked to pay the price for the greed and incompetence of reckless builders who built dangerous, shoddy homes, unmonitored by an indifferent State.

Last summer the Dáil passed a Green Party motion calling on the Government to regulate the construction industry and institute a redress scheme for such homeowners. Last month the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government published a report which called for a redress scheme for such homeowners. Yet, instead of rising to and responding to these calls, the Government has done nothing. These homeowners feel alone and abandoned and the Government does nothing to assist them. These are not buy-to-let properties or speculative properties: these are their homes. This poor building happened under the State's watch with little or no substantive regulation, certification or supervision. The Government simply cannot wash its hands of this issue. Practical, reasonable measures which could ease the burden on homeowners include relief on property tax, relief on income tax for works to be carried out, creating a loan fund for those who cannot pay and VAT relief along the lines of the home renovation initiative.

What will the Taoiseach do to assist these homeowners who are in desperate need of help? Will he enact a comprehensive legal reform to create new remedies for victims of poor building practices? This problem will not go away. The remedies simply are not there and the Government must take action to create them. The Dáil has called for that, the joint Oireachtas committee has called for that and homeowners across the length and breadth of our country are calling for that. How much longer will the Government remain silent? When will the Government do something constructive and effective to help these homeowners?

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