Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move:

That Dáil Éireann: welcomes the publication of the Report of the Working Group to Examine Defects in Housing;

notes that the report:

— estimates up to 100,000 homes could be affected by building defects;

— estimates that the cost of remediating these defects could be as high a €2.5 billion; and

— outlines options for the creation and financing of a redress scheme for those affected;

acknowledges that:

— light touch building control regulations by the Government, and shoddy practice in the construction industry were the cause of these defects; and

— homeowners are not responsible for these defects;

supports homeowners and tenants call for a 100 per cent redress;

recognise the growing frustration amongst homeowners and tenants due to the delay in bringing forward an appropriate redress scheme, given that the current Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Darragh O'Brien TD, and the Government have now been in office two and a half years;

regrets that even if the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, announces a building defects scheme in early 2023, based on the experience of the Enhanced Defective Concrete Blocks Grant Scheme, homeowners may be unable to access such a scheme and receive funding for remediation until 2024 at the earliest, due to the slow pace in bringing forward legislation and regulations and the lack of any provision for such a scheme in Budget 2023; and

calls on the Government to establish a redress scheme for all homes impacted by Celtic Tiger era building defects as a matter of urgency; and

agrees that the redress scheme:

— should consider expanding the terms of reference of the Pyrite Resolution Board to ensure the scheme opens in early 2023, with amending legislation where required;

— should operate as an end-to-end scheme, similar to the current Pyrite Resolution Board, rather than a grant scheme;

— should prioritise those developments with the greatest level of fire safety and structural risk;

— should provide interim funding for emergency works and short-term measures, such as fire wardens in advance of a full redress;

— should be retrospective for those forced to pay for remediation of defects in advance of the opening of the scheme; and

— must also include social landlords, including local authorities and Approved Housing Bodies.

I welcome the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, to the House. I also welcome to the Public Gallery residents, owners and tenants who live in defective buildings in a number of developments across Dublin city, in Parkwest, Hunters Wood, the Metropolitan apartments and Hyde Square on the South Circular Road. I commend the very good work, in some cases over many years, of the Apartment Owners Network of the Construction Defects Alliance and the more recently established Not Our Fault 100% redress campaign.

In fact, it was the good work of the Construction Defects Alliance, supported by many of us in the Opposition, that ensured that the manifestos of the political parties, including the Minister's party, in the previous general election and, subsequently, the programme for Government included a commitment to examine the need for a redress scheme and, more generally, to strengthen building control so that the kinds of scandals seen during the Celtic tiger period never happen again. The Minister knows from the report, Safe as Houses?, produced during his time on the then Joint Committee for Housing, Planning and Local Government and Heritage and from other reports he has commissioned that the cause of building defects is twofold. It is shoddy practice within the industry, which was widespread over many years during the Celtic tiger era, but also the light-touch self-regulation introduced by both Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil in the 1980s and 1990s, which allowed that shoddy behaviour to take place. The consequence, as the Minister’s independent working group report on defective building shows, is that as many as 100,000 homes could be affected by serious fire safety issues, water ingress, cladding, car parking and other structural defects. I acknowledge the work of the working group. The report is very helpful. I also note the Minister has said he will be bringing a memorandum from his cross-departmental working group of civil servants to Cabinet before the end of the year. I will welcome seeing that.

I stress to the Minister that when I talk to homeowners, as I am sure he also does, there is an enormous frustration that two and a half years into this Government, we still do not have a scheme. We have the promise of a scheme, the details and timeline of which we still do not know. For families, particularly families with children, living in fire safety defective buildings or buildings with other structural defects, the wait is simply too long. It is hard to understand why it has taken so long.

The reason we tabled this motion tonight is to stress in the strongest possible terms that homeowners in many thousands of developments throughout the country, in Belmayne, Beacon South Quarter, Brú na Sionna in County Clare and in the Minister's constituency, many of whom are in the Gallery, need a scheme now. As I have said before, I am concerned that even if the Minister brings a memo to Cabinet before Christmas announcing the broad outline of how he intends to proceed and it takes as long to get it from announcement to opening as the enhanced defective block scheme for the counties affected by pyrite, mica and pyrrhotite is taking, it could be a year or more before a scheme for these homeowners and tenants even opens, let alone before they get any redress. The Minister announced the enhanced defective block scheme a year ago last week and the legislation passed through the Oireachtas over the summer. The regulations are still not complete, however, and we do not expect them to be ready until next year. The local authorities will then have to set up the scheme. There is no significant additional budgetary provision for this year compared with last year. In fact, I have just come from a meeting of the Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage at which the National Standards Authority of Ireland, NSAI, told us that its review of the statutory instrument underpinning that scheme will not have been completed until 2024. If the same approach is taken for the redress scheme for homeowners with Celtic Tiger era defects, it will be simply too long. For this reason, we need a different approach.

I responded to the Minister’s invitation to set out my party's views this week. My strong view is that we need a scheme similar to the pyrite remediation scheme. It needs to be 100% redress end to end. Given the complexities of owners' management companies, OMCs, and the varied ownerships of units in multi-development schemes, the only way for such a scheme to work is for it to be led by an OMC making a request to a State agency for inspections and agreement of works, and for all of the works to be contracted out by that State agency. How the State then deals with issues such as institutional landlords or landlords who own more than one property can be dealt with. However, for owners whose defective apartment is their principal private dwelling, tenancies that are social tenancies and landlords with a single property, there needs to be up-front 100% redress provided through such a Stage agency. I know the Minister does not agree with the suggestion I made before but that may be because he does not fully understand it. While I accept there will be a need for underpinning legislation for a new scheme, the Minister could take the pyrite remediation board, which has an office, staff and expertise, and expand its remit, on an initial non-statutory basis, bring forward the legislation in parallel. That would allow the body to deal with the scheme as it rolls out. It would also allow it to deal with the issue of the provision of emergency funding either to deal with emergency fire safety works that are required now and cannot wait for a scheme or for interim measures. The Minister knows what they are; the Construction Defects Alliance and others have told him. They include additional fire alarms, sprinkler systems and, in some cases, fire wardens.

I stress that this scheme must be retrospective. There are people who have paid thousands of euro and in some cases tens of thousands of euro under duress from insurance companies raising premiums or threatening to withdraw them or on the advice of the fire safety authorities. Those people cannot be left behind. They must be included in any scheme and an element of retrospection is required. We know, for example, that landlords who carry out capital works on properties to improve them can write down the cost in their future tax liability. That approach provides a mechanism to give these homeowners 100% redress.

I will raise two other issues with the Minister. The first is the National Asset Management Agency, NAMA, and receivers acting on its behalf. One of the many aspects of this scandal is the appalling way in which NAMA and the receivers engage with OMCs and residents when dealing with defective buildings. Carrickmines Green is one. Brú na Sionna is another. I know NAMA is independent but the Minister for Finance needs to make it clear that the agency needs to take a different approach and work with OMCs and owners to address these issues, not against them.

I urge the Minister to examine the need for a levy on the profits of large companies. Cairn Homes is one of the most profitable companies in the State. Its director was the director of a company that was responsible for Belmayne. It is unconscionable that Cairn Homes is in receipt of significant state aid in planning permissions and making huge profits, none of which are levied to go towards remediating properties, for example, in Belmayne. I am sure the Minister agrees. I ask him to please give us good news today and work with the Opposition. He should tell us when we are going to get a scheme and give the families in the Gallery today and homeowners like them real redress in 2023.

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