Michael McNamara (Clare, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Minister spoke about the magnitude of the scheme and we cannot but agree with him. It is a major scheme. It is important that it is underpinned by legislation. Deputy McHugh also spoke about the magnitude of the scheme, which is at €2.4 billion. Of course, we are only starting. Does anybody sitting here really think it will cost just €2.4 billion? It will cost an awful lot more than that. At the very least, one might expect that a Bill introducing a scheme that will cost, conservatively, €2.4 billion - I would have thought it would be at least €5 billion - would introduce enhanced measures to ensure those who provided concrete blocks that were defective, did so for profit, and obtained significant profit, would be pursued through the courts for that.

Not alone does this scheme not introduce any enhanced measures, it, in effect, ensures those who provided the blocks will not be pursued by homeowners because they cannot be. The Minister is correct that the cause of action accrues to him. It is for him to pursue them. I wish I could have confidence in that happening. I tried to introduce an amendment that was not ruled out of order or anything, but we will not get to it. I tried to introduce an amendment allowing for the Minister to at least report back on how many cases were pursued. The reality is nobody will be pursued. That is why the share price of the biggest quarrying company in Ireland is unchanged by this scheme. In fact, its share price is defying downward movement of the ISEQ and staying pretty level.

I do not have the human resources of the Attorney General's office at my disposal but the Minister does. I would have very much liked to have seen him introduce something whereby we knew each and every case was going to be pursued and the unfortunate homeowners could possibly piggyback on a case. I do not think the Minister is going to give a homeowner €200,000 and then pursue that case. There will be many cases where he cannot do so. I accept that as an unfortunate reality, but there will be some cases where he can. If the real cost to homeowners is more than the €200,000 the Minister will give them, they could bring a case in parallel but this cannot happen under this scheme. In fact, what this introduces, and I do not think the Minister has done this intentionally - I certainly hope he has not - is that no cases will be taken by homeowners against any of the quarries. There will be none taken by the Minister either because there is no requirement to account back to this House, even though €5 billion will be spent.

It is a scheme of considerable magnitude but it is deficient. I appreciate that we need to call a vote on a couple of other amendments that will be reached, but we needed much more time to discuss this.

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