Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

A very significant amount of public money is involved in this and the homeowners themselves are taxpayers, which is a point that needs to be made repeatedly because it is an issue that got skewed over the course of the campaign. There was a certain maligning in that regard. This €2.7 billion is a massive amount of public money to deal with redress. It is important that there is expediency in all of this and that the money is ring-fenced for redress for homes with defective blocks containing pyrite or mica. There is a turbulent economic situation circling for autumn. The inflation rate is already at 9.6% and, with the war in Ukraine continuing and inflation on an upward trajectory globally, there is no knowing what budgetary context we may be in come late autumn and into the winter. I understand that there are very soon to be further reports relating to defective apartments. It is very important that, while this €2.7 billion is ring-fenced, redress be expedited and further improved and refined by regulation in the autumn.

We have been reassured that the damage threshold is about ensuring that properties that are presented for redress are triaged so that those that are in the worse state of decline and decay are dealt with first while those that are in a better state are dealt with further down the line. I do not believe anyone has suggested it is a means of excluding people. The regulation will deal with the parameters of the threshold, which is welcome.

I have a final point that needs to be central to everything. Several months ago, this whole case was brought to the Attorney General. There are huge quarries and concrete block manufacturers still operating and trading very healthily. The CRH company, Roadstone, one of the largest companies in the concrete block industry in Europe, trades in Bunratty in my own constituency of Clare. It is imperative that Roadstone, Cassidy Brothers and any other company that has sold defective concrete blocks be brought before the courts and make a payment to the State so that this does not all fall to the public coffers.

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