Dáil debates

Wednesday, 20 October 2021

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions

 

12:02 pm

Photo of Micheál MartinMicheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I checked with officials in my office before coming here and my office was not aware that an invitation had been issued to me to meet the group today. The Deputy should not politicise the issue in the way she did. I will meet groups and I went to Donegal and met homeowners. No party in this House has a monopoly on empathy and the Deputy does not either. Sinn Féin did not make this an issue in the 2020 general election. The reality is that there was not one mention of mica in its 2020 manifesto. In January 2020 Deputy Mac Lochlainn welcomed in good faith the scheme the last Government brought in.

This Government has been in office 15 months but the situation is shocking and it is terrible that children have to be outside Leinster House. We have heard the message and we want to get this comprehensively resolved for the owners of the homes. The homes are in a terrible condition in many instances and a range of issues have to be addressed. The Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, set up a working group arising from meetings I had in Donegal with homeowners and Donegal County Council during the summer. The mechanism by which the new scheme will have to be administered is key. It is not as simple as the Deputy presents it but things, of course, never are. The Deputy, from her perspective, will present it in a simplistic way.

Enormous provision will have to be made to deal with the mica situation to refurbish housing, to give guarantees and to underpin people's sense of security in their homes for the long term. A range of actors are involved in this, including insurance companies, and it seems to me that a lot of people have left the scene. The Government is now the one agency that can help the residents and homeowners and it intends to do that in a comprehensive way. The scheme will be far more significant than the last scheme, which was significant in itself and which the Deputy welcomed at the time.

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