Paul Donnelly (Dublin West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The defective concrete products levy proposed by the Government is badly designed and will have the effect of increasing costs to homeowners. Indeed, the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland, SCSI, has stated it will increase the cost of a home by more than €4,000. If it is implemented, the cost of 800 houses, including social and affordable houses and cost rental, at a development at Church Fields in Mulhuddart will increase by €3.2 million.

Sinn Féin agrees that a levy is needed and that it would be the right and appropriate thing to do if it was done the right way. There are very profitable developers out there who are making tens of millions of euro in profit, while the banks are making record profits. They should pay up. Sinn Féin is also calling for the quarries and suppliers to be held to account financially.

In Dublin West, there are hundreds of homes that were affected by pyrite. Now there are hundreds of apartments there that have major fire safety and structural issues. One apartment block of which I am aware will have permanent fire wardens until each apartment owner pays up tens of thousands of euro. Many of them do not have that money. We in Sinn Féin believe strongly that the Government should widen the remit of the existing Pyrite Resolution Board to allow it to start processing applications for building defects from early 2023. The pressure, hurt, anger, stress and distress that the homeowners affected by pyrite or mica are experiencing are shared by those in defective apartments. This was caused by greedy developers and suppliers, along with light-touch regulation by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. That contributed to the massive problem we have today. It is time to do the right thing for all those affected by pyrite, mica and defective apartments and that is to make the right people pay and for those on the Government benches to take responsibility for their past failures.

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