Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Perhaps I have a lack of experience, but I thought the budget set out what the Government intends to spend money on in the coming year. Perhaps I am wrong in that regard. As I see it, the budget is the deadline for what is happening with the mica issue. What I can see is that the Government is kicking the can down the road. This email, which I printed off, arrived last night for us. The report of the working group on defective concrete blocks was published last week. It is basically pages and pages of nothing. It does not make any recommendations. It does not do anything. The mica homeowners were right not to sign off on it and not to agree to it because there is nothing in it to agree to.

Homeowners are coming down here again on Friday to have a march and to put their case once again to the Government. The working group has failed. This letter is now asking us to provide costings. The Government has said it cannot provide costings, yet we are expected to provide costings. The Government must put the minds of these families at rest and tell them that the issue will be dealt with. This is being kicked down the road and is dragging on for weeks. The working group was extended from the end of July to the beginning of September and then it was the end of September. Everything has now been put back even further. The Government must end this for the people and let them know that something will be done.

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