Martin Browne (Tipperary, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome all the homeowners who are in the Gallery. I also recognise them for the pressure they have exerted over the years to get us to this point. As this motion suggests, there is some way to go.

We must ensure that the right path is taken so that homeowners are compensated fully and as swiftly as possible.

Under 20% of Tipperary's total number of apartment duplexes constructed between 1991 and 2016 were represented in the report of the Working Group to Examine Defects in Housing. This is a significant number. As the organisations involved would agree, the full extent of the problem is not known, so it would be remiss of me not to speak on this motion in the interests of my constituents.

Sinn Féin believes that the homeowners and tenants are not responsible for these defects. The Safe as Houses? report argued that the light-touch regulation introduced by Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil and the shoddy practices in the industry during the Celtic tiger led to common defects. Those affected should not be picking up the bill just to make their homes safe. Thankfully, the Construction Defects Alliance has not let up in its campaign. With the support of us and others, it has forced the current Government to move away from the position of the Fine Gael minority Government that tried to put the burden on the homeowners and tenants. After two and a half years, though, the current Government has provided no clarity on a redress scheme. If one is introduced on the same basis as the enhanced defective concrete blocks scheme, homeowners may not be able to access it and receive funding for remediation until 2024 at the earliest. Never mind a sticking plaster solution; just introduce a scheme for which these families do not need to wait another two years. This is why we are calling on the Government to establish a redress scheme urgently for all impacted homes, to expand the terms of reference of the Pyrite Resolution Board, to ensure the scheme opens in 2023 and to provide interim funding for emergency works in the meantime. The scheme must be retrospective for those forced to pay for the remediation of defects and prioritise those developments with the greatest levels of fire safety and structural risk.

People who have put their lives' investments into these properties should not be asked to bear the burden of poor building controls and regulation by previous Governments led by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael.

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