Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

This is the core of this issue. This is what the demand is and this was the chant from tens of thousands of people who came to the streets more than a year ago. It is to ensure that people are able to have their homes remediated. I am sure the Minister probably believes his own spin or some of the stuff he said earlier that this is 100% up to €420,000. That is simply not true. If it were true, then people in my country and other countries would be happy with this legislation. It is not true, however, and they know that. They have examined the numbers. They sat at their kitchen tables, took out their pens and pencils and looked at what this will mean for them.

Deputy Ó Broin gave an example of one of the campaigners for whom this means that she would have to get approximately €40,000 or something of that order to rebuild her home. The reason the people in the Gallery travel and the reason people campaign outside the Houses is because they know those figures are real. Depending on the size of the house or a person's circumstances, it can be even higher than €40,000 or €50,000 because there is not 100% redress. The SCSI costings exclude a huge number of costs that will be associated with rebuilding these families' homes. The costings themselves are so far out of date that they need to be brought up to date. This is the core. If the Minister believed in his own guff that there is 100% redress up to €420,000 then he should support this amendment and give the people what they deserve, which is 100% redress.

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