Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I repeat the comments of Deputy Patricia Ryan. We are disappointed the Minister did not stay for the entire debate. This is a profound emergency across the State and the Minister who is responsible to this Oireachtas for housing did not stay more than half an hour so he was not here to listen to Members for an hour and a half. I appreciate the Minister of State being here and perhaps he can convey what I am about to say directly to the Minister when he speaks to him.

It is about the emergency in Donegal, the west of Ireland and possibly 13 or 14 counties caused by defective blocks. A major conference was held in Donegal last week attended by experts from Canada, the US, Norway, Switzerland and the UK who examined the laboratory tests of blocks from Donegal and diagnosed what is really happening. It is their expert opinion that pyrrhotite, which is an iron sulfide, is the actual cause of what is happening even though European regulations have been in place for about 20 years and the damage iron sulfides can do if they are not regulated properly in quarries is known internationally. This crisis and the responsibility of the Government and the State for it are worse that we understood originally. It is getting worse.

I ask the Minister of State to discuss what I am about to discuss with the Minister tomorrow. This State needs to ensure the testing of foundations. In the state of Connecticut in the US, pyrrhotite in foundations has led to a major initiative where the foundations of hundreds of homes had to be removed. We need to test the foundations of homes now. That is the clear scientific advice from these experts. The Government has put in place a scheme that does not provide for the testing of foundations, which is incredible, even when there was testimony and evidence presented at the Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage as part of the legislation passed earlier this year. Even then, it still has not been agreed to. The Government is potentially wasting millions of euro of taxpayers' money where it could be asking people to rebuild their homes on foundations that are not stable. If in doubt, test the foundations. That is the clear advice of these experts and I am appealing for this to happen.

Dr. Andreas Leemann, an internationally renowned expert from Switzerland, visited the home of Sharon Moss, which is one of the affected homes in Donegal. I have been in that house too. You would not ask any human being or animal to live in a house such as this. There is black mould on all of the internal walls that interact with the external walls all around the house. After 20 minutes, Dr. Leemann said he was coughing and we expect human beings to live there. Animals should not be living in a house like this never mind human beings. This family is stuck. It cannot get financial assistance to relocate.

This brings me to my next point. I am begging the Minister of State. For God's sake, how can we allow dozens of families to live in homes that are not fit for human habitation? How many weeks do I have to come into this Chamber and beg Ministers to intervene and to get the Housing Agency and Donegal County Council to meet these families and get them out now?

Why is the Government forcing families to live in houses with black mould strangling them and their kids? Why is the Government doing this? Why is it asking families to live where masonry could fall on top of them at any minute? It is only the mercy of God that it has not happened already.

This is an emergency now in Ireland. It is an earthquake happening in slow motion. I beg the Government to undertake an initiative to get these families out of these homes. Will it take us being shamed? International experts toured these houses last week. They appeared on RTÉ and said this was the worst example they have seen in the world. The US, Canada, Norway, Switzerland and the UK, all these countries, have experienced this problem, but the worst experience is here. Will the Government please get this sorted? Whatever about the wider housing emergency, will the Government intervene as soon as possible here, talk to the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, and get this sorted out?

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