Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

I will speak very briefly on this. I will talk about the rights of the people who have been hardest hit by this issue. I will also talk about the rights of the taxpayers. On the issue of the people who live in the homes affected by mica, I will put on record that I believe it is a disgrace that this is being rammed through, that there has not been adequate time for debate and that the Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage was not convened today to discuss the situation. The Bill does not extend to the issue of foundations. The review on the issue of foundations will be returned in a year's time and only then will a decision be made on whether to include them, even though there is no guarantee that the grant cap will be increased to facilitate this.

In the meantime, what are homeowners to do? They either have to wait or they have to rebuild on suspect foundations, unless they have a huge sum of money they can bring into the equation. That is wrong and unfair. It adds insult to injury for the people who have suffered in this situation.

On the issue of the taxpayer, I listened to the point some of the Fianna Fáil Deputies made. There is no question that this is a big hit to the taxpayer. Perhaps Deputies should reflect on the years and years of light-touch regulation overseen and facilitated by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael led Governments, which led to this issue the first time. Why are the insurance companies not paying now? Why are the banks that are mortgaging the homes not paying now? What about the construction industry and the developers that profited from this, not to mention the quarries that supplied the blocks in the first place? There is no point talking about mañana. These measures should be implemented now to defend the interests of the taxpayers on the basis of justice for the mica homeowners, justice that is being denied by the Minister and the Government through the scandalous way this debate is being organised.

See this speech in context