Charles Ward (Donegal, 100% Redress Party)

I am not going to mince my words. The defective concrete scandal is a national emergency the Minister's Government wilfully mismanaged for over a decade. The Government has worked hard to fool the public and portray that we are being looked after, but the truth is we are now in the second failed scheme. My staff see suicidal ideation every week in our office. The uncertainty and the feeling of abandonment in this crisis has caused this. Some 40% of homeowners are living with severe depression. This is the reality and yet there is still no timeline for when IS 465 will be reviewed. Legislation for retrospective payments has still not been published since the grant amount was increased almost a year ago, despite the Minister, Deputy Browne, telling us it would be prioritised in June.

Let us talk about unethical engineering decisions that are still happening. Chartered engineers, under the original scheme, made recommendations for full demolition and yet chartered engineers from the Housing Agency continue to overturn them. People are being told their homes are safe when they are not. Complaints have been made to Engineers Ireland but the Government remains silent at the cost of people's health and safety. The truth is the Government has the power to fix this crisis today. It does not need to wait for the review of IS 465. The defective concrete has been trotted out as a poor excuse for inaction for far too long. The Government wrote the legislation in full knowledge the obstacles it would present to accessing the scheme and continues to hide behind this to this day. Under Irish law the Government can declare a national emergency and issue ministerial guidance and fast-track legislation to address this crisis. The legal framework is there but the will to act is missing.

I need real answers and I would be grateful if the Minister would respectfully give them to me and those affected rather than running down the clock, as usually happens, with people looking over and wasting time. We need answers and we need them now. People are suffering and literally dying. This Government runs down the clock and delays things. Will the Minister and the Government use the powers under the Public Service Management Act 1997 to immediately issue ministerial guidelines to the Housing Agency to stop issuing partial fixes and ensure full remediation of affected homes? Will the Government use its ministerial authority to direct the Housing Agency to reinstate the engineers' original recommendations for further demolition, stop the madness of partial fixes that will fail in the future and follow the science? Finally, will there be legislation to ensure families who were early movers and were reassured they would not be disadvantaged be given the 10% retrospective payment they were meant to get and not be punished?

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