Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

My colleague, Deputy Mac Lochlainn, really summed up what is needed but also the failure of this legislation. That is why, unfortunately, we had this joint statement from the Donegal Mica Action Group, Mayo Pyrite Action Group, Clare Pyrite Action Group, Limerick Pyrite Action Group and Sligo Pyrite Action Group saying they cannot support this legislation unless there are changes to it. They outline in their statement the frustration, engagement, false dawns and false promises and how they have been led along.

Despite all of that, we have legislation that is itself defective and will not meet the needs of countless people in my county and right across the west coast and elsewhere. If we take a person-centred approach as a Dáil, we will get this right. The demand from the campaigners and families is to get it right. They have been waiting. They have had false dawns and false schemes. We need to get it right this time. I commend the campaigners. They have done an amazing job in raising this issue and bringing it to public prominence. More importantly, however, they did something that went way beyond that - they opened up their own life stories to us. They told us some secrets many families keep about people whose mental health is breaking down. People showed us the prescriptions they have now because of cracking walls and trying to keep their families together. People opened up about family relationships and personal relationships and the strains the cracks in the walls are having on those family ties. I was taken by one person we met who told us that she goes off to drive down a wee lane to cry and then comes back to the family and tries to pull it all back together.

Even if we get this legislation right today, there is still a long way to go for these families to get their homes rectified. However, the problem is that this legislation is defective. The problem is that this Government has not listened to the pleas and anguish or the solutions that have been put forward by the family campaigners over the recent period. If the Government had listened it would not have drafted this type of legislation. It would not have the types of flaws in it that require 80 amendments, which I am proud to sponsor along with my colleague, Deputy Mac Lochlainn, our spokesperson, Deputy Ó Broin, the entire Sinn Féin Party and, indeed, the Opposition Members on behalf of the homeowners. It is the homeowners who are telling us that we have to get this right.

You cannot walk the length of yourself in parts of County Donegal without meeting somebody who has been affected by mica. One cannot walk down a street without meeting somebody - the person affected or a family member - who is suffering this anguish and turmoil. We heard from and have spoken to people who are in their twilight years. They worked all the hours, days and years God sent them and paid into their pension. They are depending on a social welfare pension and now they are finding that their house - their forever home - is riddled with mica. Under this scheme, they would have to contribute tens of thousands of euro, which they simply do not have.

Another case at the other end of the spectrum is that of a young couple who got married about a year ago. They bought a new house, a big investment, just a couple of years before that. They have had their first child. It is a special time in any young couple's lives when they should be looking forward to the future with hope, but they have found that their house is also riddled with mica. They are in complete distress. In between those two cases of the pensioner and the young couple there is the spectrum of thousands of other families with real stories and real heartbreak. They are hoping the Members in this Chamber do the right thing over the next week.

We can talk about things that are tangential to this, but we have legislation here that is not fit for purpose. We need to amend it or it must be rejected and made right. That is what the families are asking us to do and that is what must be done. The stress this is putting on parents and on young people across the board is absolutely ridiculous and it has to stop. We must do the right by them. What has to be done? We need to listen to the homeowners and to those who have put forward those 80 amendments. The Government must provide additional space and time so those amendments can be debated and considered with proper time and proper scrutiny. This scheme costs a great deal of money for the taxpayer, and the taxpayers are the people who are also affected by mica in their homes, yet the Government is giving two hours for Committee and Report Stages next week. It is approximately €22 million per minute. It is ridiculous. In my ten or 11 years as finance spokesperson I have not seen a single legislative measure which has such a large bill being rushed through. It needs to stop. We must get this right on behalf of everybody.

A number of issues must be dealt with. One of the things that was not in the previous scheme is the damage threshold. Now, the Government is planning to introduce a damage threshold. It is not about prioritising when one's house will get remediated but about eligibility for the scheme. That has to go, and go without delay.

The other issue that needs to be dealt with is the square foot rate, as other Deputies have mentioned. I listened to the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy McConalogue, and to Deputy McHugh. The reality is that if they vote for this scheme without amendment, there will be hundreds of people, their neighbours, friends and people they meet in the street, who will not be able to avail of the scheme. Why? The scheme will require them to put their hands in their pockets to the tune of tens of thousands of euro, which we know they simply do not have. Ms Martina Hegarty put it well with regard to her home. She is very familiar with the scheme and with the legislation. She has been an activist on this for many years. She has one of the smallest houses going into the scheme at less than 1,000 sq. ft. Under the scheme she will have a grant of €158,000. The cost she has received from contractors is approximately €40,000 more than that.

We have heard from others, such as quantity surveyors who provided information and evidence to the committee. For example, Mr. Aidan Houton said that the estimated shortfall for a 1,000 sq. ft. house is €48,300, which is 30%. For an average one-off house in the State, which is 2,400 sq. ft., the estimated shortfall would be €69,600. We know why that happened. We know about the rates being set by the SCSI, but we also know that the game was rigged. The criteria the SCSI was asked to look at excluded this and that, such as engineers' fees and foundations. One cannot even put a carpet or a piece of tile on the floor. All of that, including walls and gardens, is excluded. That is why these families will still not be able to afford this scheme. That is the reality, and that is why they are so annoyed at what is happening here. We need to ensure it is done properly.

The downsizing penalty has been mentioned time and again. That is the best example of the cruelty this Government is portraying in regard to this campaign. These are families that do not want to downsize. Why would they? The only reason that there is a solution, which is trying to meet the State halfway, is that this will not cost the State an extra penny. As a result of this, the families say they will consider rebuilding a smaller home even though it had nothing to do with them and it was actually the Government's fault because of an era of no regulation. They are saying they will build a smaller home, but what does the Government do? It tells them that if they do that, it will cut their grant. It is absolutely cruel. Deputy McHugh mentioned that we can deal with that in a regulation. He was probably setting himself up for voting for this legislation. It is nonsense. The legislation is very clear. It is in section 17(5), which states that if there is a reduction of the internal floor area of the relevant dwelling that is being demolished, the local authority will reduce the amount of the grant approved by the Housing Agency. It is in the legislation and it needs to be removed. That is provided for in one of the amendments. Why under God would one do this? The reason they are saying they will consider downsizing is that under the scheme they do not have the €40,000 or €50,000 so they know they are locked out. The only way they can get in under the current scheme is by building a smaller house that would cost less but then enable them to get the 100%.

I could say much more about this. We need to put people at the heart of it. We need to forget about a lot of the detail that is going to be argued with regard to the standards, doing this review and that review and all the rest just for one minute. Perhaps Members in the House have relatives who are in this situation, but I will explain how I think about this. My mum is pushing on in life. If that was my mum's house, I know she would not be able to afford to rebuild it, or if it was my son and daughter who were setting off in life, they would not be able to afford it. We need to think about the people and about how they are feeling at this point. We need to do right by them, because this State did wrong by them by having an era of no-touch or light-touch regulation during the Celtic tiger economy that allowed for these types of defective blocks to be used in the construction of their homes.

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