Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I was very proud to stand today in full support of the people of Donegal, Sligo, Mayo and Clare, calling for justice. They had many supporters here in Dublin who are also living in defective Celtic tiger-era apartments. Many speakers have rightly noted that these families have been living with defective blocks for eight long years. The expert panel on mica identified 2013 as the date pyritic and mica blocks were first discovered. For eight long years, these families have been living with this scandal. In 2017, the expert panel brought this issue to light and highlighted the action that should be taken. Only a few months later, the Oireachtas housing committee unanimously endorsed the Safe as Houses? report calling for a redress scheme for all those affected by Celtic tiger latent defects. Yet, it was not until 2020 that a scheme was even put in place, for which people would only be able to draw down money this year. I am not going to repeat the comments of nearly everybody who has spoken today other than to emphasise that the scheme that is currently available to families in Donegal and Mayo, and, hopefully, in the future in Sligo, Clare and elsewhere, is simply not fit for purpose. Anybody who would ask a family to pay €7,000 for an engineer's report to get entry to a scheme did not understand the scale of the problem. Whether it is a rate of 10%, 20% or 30%, these families should not have to pay for defects that they did not create.

Equally, they should not have to pay for the storage and accommodation costs incurred while remediation is taking place. Therefore, the one loud and clear demand from the streets of Dublin today and from this Chamber is for 100% redress and nothing less.

We must also understand that many council properties are affected. That means that council tenants are living in defective properties. Separate to the changes that I hope will emerge from the short review of this defective block scheme, local authorities - wherever they might be - must also be given the funding required to ensure that their tenants are not living in defective properties. There has been some talk about whether we should compare different schemes. Of course different schemes are different in detail but the core principle must be the same. People living in properties with defects in the ground, in the blocks, in the fire safety set-up or in any other aspect of construction should not have to pay the associated costs. One of the core principles on which the cross-party report, Safe as Houses?, was agreed was that ordinary owners who purchased in good faith should not be liable for the costs of remediation caused by the incompetence, negligence or deliberate non-compliance of others. It is not their fault and they should not have to put their hands in their pockets.

I also have some concerns about a separate issue but one that runs in parallel with this topic. The Minister set up a group to explore the issue of defective buildings. It has met several times this year and the group is due to send a report to the Minister by the summer, in time for budget 2022, to feed into another remediation scheme for those in properties that have fire safety and structural defects. My understanding is that the work of that group is very delayed. It may not meet its target deadline of having a report with the Government by this summer, and, therefore, there may not be any redress of any kind for defects originating in construction undertaken during the Celtic tiger era, whether those buildings are in Dublin, Clare or elsewhere. That would simply be unconscionable.

Therefore, I urge the Minister to not only complete the time-bound review in six weeks or less to ensure 100% redress but also to ensure that the separate working group on building defects concludes its work as a matter of urgency in time for budget 2022 to ensure that the thousands of homeowners living in apartments and duplexes with fire safety defects or water ingress or both are also given the right to 100% redress. I wish to emphasise a point of all my colleagues, which is while today's demonstration was determined, there was also a clear underlying anger. Eight years of a wait is too long. It is not what people say in this Chamber tonight that matters, it is what they do in the days and the weeks to come. If people think it will be possible to come out of that review with anything less provided for than 100% redress, then many more people will be marching in the streets of Dublin in the future and they will continue to have the support of Sinn Féin.

I am absolutely delighted, therefore, to support the initiative of my colleagues, Deputies Doherty, Mac Lochlainn, Conway-Walsh and others. I urge all Deputies to not only support this motion, but to make 100% redress and nothing less a reality in the weeks ahead.

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