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

I am thankful for the opportunity to speak on this important motion. There are many people watching this evening whose houses have been affected by the mica scandal and I pledge to them my solidarity and that of Sinn Féin. Also watching will be people from north County Dublin whose houses have been affected by pyrite or whose apartments have been affected by defects. I reassure them that we stand with them.

The mica, pyrite and apartment-defect scandals are a legacy of the light-touch building regulation which has existed for far too long in this State. Indeed, as recent years have seen reduced sizes for apartments and the sanctioning of co-living, I am reminded that this light-touch regulation still exists. It is as if we have learned nothing. Across north County Dublin, particularly in Rush and Lusk, but also, as the Minister will be aware, elsewhere in the north of the county, houses have been literally destroyed by pyrite while apartments have been crippled by latent defects. There are those whose houses are undergoing remediation but there are others who cannot sell their houses because there is pyrite in the infill and while that does not affect the structure, they cannot get a search to verify this. These are people who bought what would traditionally be known as "starter homes" and are now outgrowing those homes, but they are stuck where they are and their lives are in limbo. I urge the Minster to take a look at that situation and would be very happy to work with him on it. I have constituents, and they are constituents of the Minister as well, who have emigrated because of this. They were trapped in their homes and felt they had no option. They have let their houses and emigrated. To see one's home reduced to rubble or for it to be condemned as unsafe for one's kids or grandkids to be in is just shocking, and that is before we even mention the hundreds of thousands of euro people have spent just to try to keep their homes right.

In the case of the houses in County Donegal, I am told the root cause of this is provision of defective blocks from quarries. These people are still operating and that must be absolutely infuriating, just as it is for myself and the Minister's constituents who see the builders who built their homes getting away scot-free and now building new developments just across the road. Imagine how heartbreaking that must be for people. I commend the strength and the dignity of the people affected in counties Donegal and Mayo for how they have conducted themselves throughout their campaign. They are a credit to their counties and to their families. They are an example to all of those people who have been wronged as to what can be done if people pull together with a common cause and a stated common aim. I have seen the same strength across north County Dublin in those people who have campaigned for redress for the victims of pyrite and for those affected by the latent defects scandal. The legacy of light-touch regulation is being faced in family homes across the State. While it is not right to compare schemes, and we should not do that, the experience for families is scarily similar. People talk of lying in bed at night listening to their houses crumbling around them. That is the experience these families have had and the impact on the lives of the residents is scarily similar.

I commend the people of County Donegal and I commend this motion. I ask the Minister that he not simply not oppose the motion but actively support it.

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