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

On fisheries, the Minister knows that the major producer organisations united in Europe yesterday under a new umbrella called Seafood Ireland. They are very clear about their serious concern about the decline of the industry. We will have a chance next Wednesday in the Oireachtas committee to engage on that and the people will have their say the next election.

I will focus my comments today on the defective block scheme. Whenever there were 20,000 people from Donegal, Mayo, Clare, Limerick and the west, but predominantly from Donegal, here, the Tánaiste, Micheál Martin, said the scheme would be the biggest redress scheme in the history of the State. He said it would be €3.5 billion. It is estimated the defective apartment scheme will be around €2.5 billion. There is a total of €6 billion for those two schemes and, of course, pyrite is still ongoing. What was the allocation in the budget yesterday for all of these schemes? It was €70 million. By my estimation, it would take 85 years for everybody who is entitled to redress to get it.

It is time to be honest here. Micheál Martin needs to be honest. He was never serious about a redress scheme that everybody could access. The scheme we have now is designed to exclude most families. The Minister knows there are people in their 60s and 70s in our home county of Donegal who cannot access the finance. They were not given a 100% redress scheme which more than 3,000 families were given in Dublin and north Leinster. They got 100% redress; our families in the west have not got it. That is why most families cannot access the scheme and why the allocation in this budget is €70 million. The Government knows the scheme is not designed to facilitate proper redress. We will go to the people soon and the people will have their say. It is time for honesty. When we were feeling all the sympathy and support from all around Ireland for people who did no wrong, with their lives falling apart, and Micheál Martin said we will have the biggest redress scheme in the history of the State of €3.5 billion, he never meant it, he was never serious and the people will have their say on that very soon.

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