Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

-----because it is easier to go after the individuals in the houses. It seems as though this levy is being put on the companies but it is not. It is a levy on the cost of building a house. The Government should at least try to make it look as if it is going after the profits of the company.

The Taoiseach may say he wants to make this scheme right and there may be €2.8 billion written off for this but not one penny has been spent and there is nothing happening. The 300 or 400 houses the Taoiseach says need to be addressed are unfortunately the tip of the iceberg. It will be thousands of houses.

Where are people going to live while their houses are being done? Even if we attempt to do 50 houses per year in Donegal, where are those 50 families going to go? There is nowhere. What is the Government doing to put in place temporary accommodation for those people? That should all be going along now. We should not be arriving in January and deciding we need this. That would lead to a delay of another year or more, which would be wrong. People see this all the time. They live and breathe this whole mica crisis. They know exactly what is happening there. They know what can be done. If the Government would talk to them and take that on board, it would make a huge difference.

I suggest that as many people as possible should attend the conference that is due to take place in Atlantic Technological University in Letterkenny on 15 November, when the Mica Action Group will hear from international experts on the impact of deleterious material.

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