Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal, Sinn Fein)

I commend my colleague Deputy Charles Ward on putting together this motion. It speaks volumes that every single member of the Opposition accepted the invitation to co-sign the motion because it reflects the reality on the ground in our counties. My colleagues from other counties will speak soon. As someone from Donegal, I can say with absolute authority that this motion reflects the lived reality of our people. The Government countermotion shows it is absolutely tone-deaf to the reality in our communities. It is utterly offensive.

The first phrase we see early in the Government's countermotion is that this is not a redress or compensation scheme. Who does it think it is fooling? Micheál Martin, the Taoiseach, boasted that this would be the biggest redress scheme in the history of the State. That is his language - the biggest redress scheme and the history of the State, at more than €3 billion. The Government countermotion now boasts it is the biggest in the world apparently. However, that is not true on the ground. As we know from the previous Attorney General, Paul Gallagher, as we know from the leaked letters, the scheme was always intended to exclude as many people as possible. That was always the plan and that is what is happening.

Families who can pull together tens of thousands of euro are forced to do that and they are rebuilding their homes. However, tens of thousands of euro represents a good outcome. I recently met a family on site. Their beautiful home had to be demolished and they were traumatised. They told me that they do not get any money whatsoever for the foundations that have to be replaced. The demolition is not properly reflected in the price. This is not a huge house, but when they added things up, they are going to be short by just shy of €200,000. They had six years left on their mortgage and were paying about €900 a month. Because the banks are not helping, they now have a 21-year mortgage and their repayments have doubled to €1,800. They will be well past pension age when they are finished paying. That is 100% redress.

As colleagues have said, this is not about dividing urban from rural because all are victims of the failure of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael where there was self-regulation, light-touch regulation and no regulation of the construction industry and the manufacturing industry.

There was none whatsoever. It is an absolute disaster that we are left in this situation. This is a redress scheme. The Minister has got to be honest about that.

The next offence then is that the Government states that it provides "100 per cent of eligible expenditure". The language of that is so dishonest. The Government designed a scheme that left people to the mercy of the market where builders can name their own price. The sums are not adding up. We have nothing resembling 100% redress. What we, in the Opposition, are saying today, and I want to echo the call of colleagues, is that every single victim should be treated the same whether they live in Dublin, Leinster, the west of Ireland or if they are in the defective apartments. Every single person and every single family who was failed by what happened in this State, by governments that abandoned them and left no regulation, should be given the same 100%. It could not be more simple. We are uniting the people of this country in urban and rural communities; victims united in getting the same 100% redress.

I will tell the Minister something now. The Government has countered the motion from Deputy Ward today that we have cosigned, but we are not going to go away. The Government may think that because 20,000 people were out on the streets of Dublin, this is all over now; it is not over. There are thousands of council houses in my home county, and there are thousands of private homes. The example has been given of the semi-detached block. Imagine taking down half a semi-detached block. There is no solution for apartments. The Government has abandoned huge numbers of people. They are not going to go away, and we are going to keep fighting until we get the same justice for every single victim across this State.

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