Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

When I raised this matter with the Tánaiste previously, he wondered why it was even being brought up. I am again raising the issues of defective blocks in Donegal and, indeed, in more and more areas across the country. Despite the Tánaiste's best hopes, this issue has not been resolved. It is pressing for the families affected and getting more and more so. There is constant worry as to where families are going to go and the difficulties they will have in getting children to school when they are living away from home while their houses are being repaired and as to how estates will be dealt with when not all homeowners are in the same place with regard to the repair of houses. All of these issues still remain to be dealt with. However, one of the most pressing issues with the 100% redress scheme - mar dhea - is that what it covers is far from 100%. Most householders will have to pay at least €60,000, and possibly a lot more, to get into the 100% redress scheme.

The banks and insurance focus group of the defective block homeowner working group has shown that the banks are equal shareholders in the problems faced by homeowners. The group needs the Government to get on board with holding them to account and demands that it does so. It has identified that all of the banks' mortgage terms and conditions contain covenants that make the repair of homes potentially automatic default events. Mortgage providers are standing outside the remediation issue, taking all of the benefits without any of the pain of having to deal with remediation. Homeowners have the stress of living in homes that are defective for reasons that are not their fault and are trying to navigate the process of applying for remediation and finding the money to bridge the 100% scheme gap while the banks and building societies sit and demand full repayment without assisting at all. At the very least, the banks should provide the homeowners with the funding to meet the difference under the 100% scheme so that homeowners have only one organisation to deal with. Recognising that the defective homes are assets of the financial organisations used to secure funding, surely those organisations would not lie to investors and say that the assets are worth what they claim.

The Minister has said that the banks need to come on board at a later stage and be understanding. Surely he recognises that is not good enough and that the softly-softly approach is not tenable. Will he recognise that the banks have a role to play at every stage in the redress process and genuinely make sure that they participate now for the benefit of those who own homes affected by the use of defective blocks all the citizens of Ireland, who will ultimately carry the cost of this scheme?

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