Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister will be very familiar with the mica redress scheme for defective concrete blocks in Donegal. It is the culmination of many years of campaigning by families, similar to the campaigns in Dublin and north Leinster, that led to the pyrite resolution scheme. Unfortunately, the scheme in Donegal is turning into a big problem. There was a necessity for 10% funding for the costs of engineering and construction, but families are finding out that the cost of demolition and reconstruction of their homes is way beyond the maximum grant available. The cost of replacing the outer leaf at the lower end of affected walls is already way above the maximum grant available. Families who have waited all these years for some hope of making their homes safe have been left in a desperate situation, through no fault of their own. It is the result of a failure in standards and oversight by the State in the construction of concrete blocks. Hardly a day goes by that I do not speak to families about their despair.

I am calling on the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to carry out an urgent review of this scheme based on the applications already submitted to Donegal County Council and the Department. There is a widespread belief in Donegal that the scheme is not fit for purpose as currently designed.

I say that for the information of the Minister, but I wish to raise with him another matter. Deputy Doherty and I wrote to the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, and the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, asking where the banks were in all of this. The banks are having their assets all across Donegal reinstated from site valuation to full market value. Their assets will be enhanced by tens of millions of euro if not hundreds of millions of euro. I am not aware of a single bank that has stepped up to provide financial assistance to the families. Will the Minister for Finance and Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage urgently convene a forum of the banks and financial institutions to demand that they make a real contribution, along with the affected families and the State, to the challenge of making these homes safe?

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