Charles Ward (Donegal, 100% Redress Party)

I move:

That Dáil Éireann:

notes that: — chartered engineers employed or contracted by the Housing Agency act as agents of the State, exercising statutory functions that determine the rights of homeowners, and that the Government remains legally and constitutionally accountable for their decisions, including unlawful downgrades from full to partial remediation;

— appeals against such downgrades have been left unresolved for over two years, leaving families in unsafe homes, in breach of the State's duty to provide timely remedies, and that justice requires the reinstatement of the original engineer's determinations;

— the appeals system is slow, opaque, and structurally flawed, with panels dominated by legal rather than technical expertise, producing procedural rather than substantive decisions on safety, and that Government cannot disclaim responsibility for a statutory process it created and funds;

— families who applied under earlier versions of the scheme are now unfairly penalised, contrary to Article 40.1 of the Constitution, and must be granted retrospective access to improved supports to ensure equal treatment before the law;

— presenting the scheme as a "grant" rather than 100 per cent redress imposes crippling financial burdens, excludes essential works, and forces families into debt, while families under the Leinster pyrite scheme received full redress and State-managed remediation, highlighting unlawful inequality of treatment;

— households impacted by defective blocks are living in unsafe, deteriorating homes under intolerable financial and psychological stress, in breach of their rights under Articles 40 and 43 of Bunreacht na hÉireann and under the European Union Charter of Fundamental Rights;

— reliance on a superficial damage threshold under I.S.465:2018 is scientifically unsound, arbitrarily excluding many homes with concealed structural failure, and that Engineers Ireland has confirmed the standard is unfit for purpose;

— consistency and fairness demand a coordinated approach to semi-detached and multi-unit developments, as it is illogical and unjust for one home to be demolished while an attached property sharing the same defective materials is left standing; and

— the crisis extends far beyond private homes to schools, health centres, community buildings, critical infrastructure, and cemeteries, requiring urgent extension of remediation measures to safeguard public safety and essential services; further notes that: — "An Earthquake in Slow Motion: The mental health impact of the defective concrete crisis", a study conducted by Oisin Keenan and Professor Karen Kirby at Ulster University has highlighted the significant psychological effects of the crisis, including trauma, stress, and long-term mental health harm, confirming that redress must address wellbeing as well as structural safety;

— families are left in damaging limbo by years of delay — waiting on appeals, technical reviews, test results, administrative processes, and the revision of I.S.465:2018 — and that this uncertainty is itself causing profound stress and harm;

— affected homeowners are denied insurance, resale value, and mortgage access until full remediation is guaranteed, perpetuating economic exclusion and insecurity;

— requiring homeowners to act as project managers imposes impossible burdens and exposes them to gouging, and that an end-to-end State-managed option must be made available to guarantee transparency, cost control, and effective delivery;

— partial remediation continues despite the acknowledged need to revise I.S.465:2018, forcing families into unsafe works and exposing the State to charges of negligence, recklessness, and breach of its constitutional duty to protect citizens;

— homeowners affected by defective concrete are being unjustly taxed twice, having paid Value Added Tax (VAT) on the original construction and now again on reconstruction despite being blameless for the defects;

— the concrete levy imposes an additional burden on homeowners rather than the industry responsible and that a significant portion of the grant scheme is effectively returned to the exchequer through VAT receipts;

— homeowners whose properties were partially constructed prior to the introduction of the Defective Concrete Blocks Grant Scheme are unjustly excluded from eligibility, despite having built in full compliance with building regulations, and that these individuals have suffered severe financial loss through no fault of their own, due to the State's failure to enforce material standards;

— the profound fear, anxiety, and trauma endured by families living in structurally unsafe homes during red weather warnings and storms;

— the absence of any statutory redress scheme for social and affordable housing affected by defective materials, and the need for the Government to immediately establish such a scheme to ensure full parity of protection and remediation across all housing tenures; and

— the State, having failed in its duty of regulation, carries an unavoidable liability to its citizens, and that only an independent statutory authority, accountable to the Oireachtas, with full oversight of delivery, standards, funding, and contractors, can ensure justice; and calls on the Government to: — immediately cease all partial remediation until the revised I.S.465:2018 standard is published and adopted, and to ground the scheme in the best available scientific evidence on pyrrhotite, sulphate attack, and concealed structural failure;

— reinstate the original determinations of engineers unlawfully downgraded by the Housing Agency, ensuring families are not trapped indefinitely in unsafe homes;

— legislate to guarantee retrospective support for all families who applied under earlier versions of the scheme, securing equality before the law;

— establish an independent statutory authority, accountable to the Oireachtas, with full responsibility for delivery, oversight, transparency, and enforcement;

— provide an optional end-to-end State-managed remediation model to relieve families of the financial and administrative burden;

— extend remediation supports to affected schools, health centres, community facilities, infrastructure, and cemeteries;

— provide dedicated mental health supports for affected families, embedding psychological assistance within the remediation process;

— set binding timelines for all decisions, publish a clear roadmap with deadlines for scientific and legislative updates, and guarantee that no family is left indefinitely in unsafe and deteriorating homes;

— immediately bring forward proposals to reform the enhanced Defective Concrete Blocks Grant Scheme so that affected homeowners are not taxed for rebuilding their homes; to remove or offset VAT and levy costs arising from remediation works; and to ensure that the financial responsibility of this crisis is placed on those responsible for the defects within the construction and materials industry;

— urgently intervene with insurance and lenders to ensure that homeowners affected by defective concrete retain full access to insurance and mortgage protection, and that they do not bear any additional insurance costs or penalties compared with homeowners who are unaffected, as no family should face financial loss, insecurity, or incur extra costs as a result of a crisis they did not cause;

— extend the scheme's eligibility to include all unfinished or uninhabitable dwellings without delay;

— immediately establish an emergency support plan, including pre-approved temporary accommodation or hotel arrangements, to uphold its health and safety duty of care, protect families from harm, and prevent the physical and psychological damage caused by unsafe living conditions;

— ensure that forthcoming legislative amendments to the scheme deliver full redress, retrospective equality, an independent statutory authority, and a scientifically sound replacement of I.S.465:2018, as failure to legislate comprehensively will prolong suffering and expose the State to constitutional and legal challenge; and

— declare the defective concrete crisis a national emergency, mobilising the full powers of the State to vindicate the constitutional and human rights of affected citizens.

This morning I table this motion not just in my own name but with the support of my Opposition colleagues across the Chamber. Together we speak with one voice not because this is political but because this is moral. This is constitutional and this is urgent. For years now, thousands of families have been left to live in homes that are cracking, sinking and breaking apart not due to negligence on their part but due to shortcuts and because the State failed to regulate. The response we received was one word, "Wait". Wait for legislation, wait for appeals, wait for revised standards, wait for a technical panel, and wait for permission to rebuild their lives. Let us be clear. Waiting is not a side effect of this scheme; it is the scheme. Every time the Government defers and every time it announces another review, it is choosing not to act.

Waiting is the policy and the delay is not neutral. It is violent because the homes are collapsing around people. The mental health damage is now becoming apparent. Children are sleeping in bedrooms filled with black mould. Tonight, like every night, their health is deteriorating. Elderly people are waking in fear that the walls will cave in this winter.

What is even more insulting is that the delay is spin. The Government reassures itself that it is doing enough, and not just that it is doing enough, but it is also trying to convince the country that it is doing enough. It is doing nothing. The Government wants to shape the narrative to tell the public that it is generous, that there is a scheme that is working, and that families are being supported. This is a PR curtain with a darker strategy.

Implicit in every response to me on the floor of this House is the portrayal of homeowners as being ungrateful. It is in the language that Ministers use. The Minister, Deputy Browne, and his Government have said that this scheme is generous and the biggest in the history of the State, and so the public are being forced to wonder why nothing is ever enough for these people. The truth is sinister. The Government has turned asking for a safe home into an unreasonable demand and has made families feel like a burden. They should not apologise for expecting the same treatment given to others in Leinster. This is not just spin; it is actual gaslighting. The Government does not want to fix the scheme but it wants to manage the optics. It wants the headlines but not the hard truth. The Government wants to wear compassion in front of the cameras. Well, we will see and we will not be silenced.

Let us stop pretending the scheme has just a few flaws. It is broken by design. More than 82 amendments were proposed to fix it and the Ministers had the information needed to provide a functional scheme. This included information from unwilling experts in this crisis who are the actual homeowners but the Government did not want the scheme to work and so it discarded the amendments and bypassed pre-legislative scrutiny at its peril. Engineers' original determinations have been unlawfully downgraded. Appeals are taking years with families stuck in unsafe homes. Essential works are excluded. The families with homes kept together with plasters are being told they do not meet the damage threshold, all while the Ministers say the Government will not be found wanting. Let me be clear, the Government has already been found wanting in compassion, in competence and in basic human decency to the people who are affected with this plight. The Government will be found wanting in law. This is not a redress. This is obstruction and bureaucracy is weaponised to delay justice until people give up or die waiting.

The human cost is staggering. An Earthquake in Slow Motion is the title of an Ulster University report on the mental health crisis we are going through. It documents the trauma, the anxiety and depression, the mothers on medication, children regressing, and families actually sleeping in cars. Some homes are so toxic with damp and black mould that respiratory issues have now become normalised. The Government is making people sick with this failure of a scheme.

The Government has taxed them twice; once when they bought and built their homes and again when they tried to fix them. They did not break them and it is not their fault. Then the Government adds a further concrete levy on top of the rebuild. The Government has made them project managers of their own trauma and still it has called it 100% redress countless times. That, quite frankly, is insulting. Let us be clear. This is not a moral failure. It is a legal and constitutional failure. It breaches Article 40.1, which states that all citizens shall be held equal before the law. It breaches Article 40.3 on the protection of property. It breaches Article 40 on bodily integrity. It breaches the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights on the right to home, dignity and effective redress. Multiple legal cases are now under way and Europe is investigating the Government's failures. The evidence is mounting and cases will grow because the law is not on the Government's side.

The Government gave full redress to families affected by pyrite in Leinster but in Donegal, Mayo, Clare and throughout the country families are told to take less, pay more and be grateful. That is not a policy. That is simply discrimination. The Government could act but has chosen not to. It must stop pretending its hands are tied. Time and again when it wants to act quickly it has proven that it can. It can move emergency legislation in days, it can bail out banks overnight, and it can create statutory bodies from nothing when it suits its agenda, so stop telling us that it is complex and stop telling us to be patient. For the love of all that is good, stop telling us to wait.

The truth is that the Government is refusing to do the right thing. Even the name of the scheme as the defective concrete block scheme reeks of a deliberate misdirection. It is not just a poor choice of words; it is a political strategy to reduce the catastrophic structural failures and to turn it into a branding exercise to sanitise science, to ignore sulphate attack analysis, pyrrhotite and crumbling foundations and to strip away the truth that entire homes, not just blocks, are defective. Everything is defective.

This is not just about blocks; it is about lives.

The language used by the Government reveals its intent to downplay the damage, minimise the State’s role and shift as much of the financial burden as possible back onto blameless homeowners who are traumatised. The Government did not just name the scheme; it named the scapegoat. This motion, supported by Members across the Opposition, demands the immediate suspension of all partial remediation until the revised IS 465:2018 standard is adopted; the reinstatement of original engineer assessments for the unlawfully downgraded; and retrospective equality for all families who applied under earlier versions of the scheme. These people applied for a 10% retrospective payment, but the Government put a cap and a date in there. Now they are left stranded. Some 43 families have been abandoned.

The motion also calls for a new independent statutory authority, accountable to the Oireachtas, to oversee delivery and enforcement; a State-managed end-to-end option for those unable to self-manage; and the removal of VAT and levies. Families must not pay to fix what the State failed to prevent. The motion also seeks the full extension of the scheme to public buildings, schools, hospitals and cemeteries; the embedding in the process of mental health supports; the setting of binding timelines and clear legal deadlines because justice delayed is justice denied; and the establishment of a scheme for social and affordable housing. Side-by-side building is needed. This must be recognised as a national emergency because that is exactly what it is.

Most people in this House are not losing sleep in a defective home, but I am and thousands of my constituents are. While Members sit in their warm offices and comfortable homes, families across this country are waking up in bedrooms soaked with damp, watching their walls disintegrate around them and wondering if tonight’s wind will bring down the ceiling again. They are breathing in black mould and their children are coughing through the night, and still the Government will not even give them the dignity of being believed. They are exhausted, afraid and suffering in silence not because they want to, but because the Government has refused to listen. I tell the Government this: I have listened and I am listening. I have stood in their homes. I have seen the despair in their eyes. I have heard the stories they are too ashamed to share. I have seen mental and marital breakdowns throughout Donegal. They have been rife. We have been living in an absolute disaster zone.

The Government may see this as a problem to manage, but I see citizens to defend. Our citizens have been abandoned. They are not asking for favours. They are asking for what they paid for: a safe home. The then Government abandoned them by failing to enforce concrete regulations and the current Government is abandoning them again by failing to provide effective redress. It must put an end to this abandonment. I say to every member of the Government sitting silently in the background: if your home looked like theirs or mine, you would have moved heaven and earth to fix this long ago. It is not your home. They are not your children in hospital. It is not your spouse on antidepressants. It is not your roof sagging or falling down. The Government waits and waits and it tells us constantly to wait. We cannot and will not wait. From this moment forward, we will see who is standing with us and who is not. The country is watching and let history record this. We will not let this Government spin or stall its way out of justice.

Today, we are speaking with one voice and we are saying that we will not be spun, we will not be smeared, we will not be gaslit and we are not going away. All we ever wanted was to have the safe home we paid for, equal treatment and a fair system. We did not ask for compensation for the years of suffering. We have asked for justice. Now we are demanding it. I commend this motion to the House.

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