Joe McHugh (Donegal, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, for meeting the Mica Action Group today, including Paddy Diver, Ann Owens, Eileen Doherty and Michael Doherty. I also could mention Councillor Martin McDermott and Eamonn Jackson. I also thank Deputy Mac Lochlainn and his colleagues for putting down this motion tonight and keeping this issue on the radar. Today was an important day, as the Minister of State, Deputy Peter Burke, pointed out, in meeting the people, listening to them and getting a good feel for where they are at. I acknowledge Savannah Diver, as did the Minister of State, in presenting that letter to the Government. We all talk about health and family and the importance of health and family in daily discourse, but what is health and family without a home?

We have an opportunity, as a Government, to put the hand up and acknowledge the 90:10 scheme is not working, cannot work and will not work. I had envisaged it working at its inception but when one really has a 70:30 scheme through the backdoor, it was never going to take off. We have an opportunity. The six-week period is important. It is important we stick to that time period.

It is also important not to get caught up in other parts of the plan of the working group over the coming weeks. I refer to welcoming the extensive and potential reach and looking at the source of the problem and bringing insurance companies into the picture as well and seeing if there can be other sources of income.

The Government cannot allow that to be used an excuse to delay the scheme. People have waited long enough. A decade is a long time in anyone's life. It is longer than a life sentence in prison in many jurisdictions. The Government cannot do this any more. I am not just talking about us, as legislators, but about people at a very high level within the Civil Service, including those in the Attorney General's office, the Department of the Taoiseach, the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform or the Department of Finance today. The Department of Finance is where the protest ended up. Those people have to listen and understand that this is not just a monetary issue. This is a life issue. This is an issue of lives that have been on hold for too long.

We all heard stories of people enhancing their houses during lockdown and doing work on their gardens, doing up their kitchens or buying new curtains. Anybody who was living in a mica-affected house during Covid did not have that luxury. All they had was an opportunity to spend more time in that isolation without hope. I met a man today who said he has a digger at his disposal but he does not have the heart to even fix his lane because he knows his home is crumbling to pieces. The Government has to make a big statement here and do the right thing. Whatever it takes to rectify this issue and get it right, we have to do it. This is an issue of paramount importance. When we leave this place tonight or on Thursday and head up the road to our constituencies, we will do so in the full knowledge that we are going to homes that are safe and are not falling down. The only difference between the houses that are crumbling at the moment and something like an earthquake is that in an earthquake, houses fall down immediately. These houses are still falling down. The difference is that they are falling down slowly and that has put trauma, heartache, anxiety, stress, pressure and strain on families and individuals. The Government and the House have the opportunity to unite on this issue, to do the right thing and to honour these people whose lives have been on hold and who have had to endure such heartache for the past ten years. We have the opportunity to do that and now is the time to do it.

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