Rory Hearne (Dublin North-West, Social Democrats)

The Social Democrats are happy to strongly support this motion. I thank Deputy Ward and the Independent Technical Group for bringing it forward. It is absolutely one of the most important motions that will be brought forward in this Dáil term because the issue that faces people across the country who are affected by defective blocks is twofold. It is State and market failure. It is market failure because developers and builders who built these homes knew what they were doing. Where is the accountability? The State was responsible for ensuring the building of homes was to a decent quality and safe standard. The State failed. As has been pointed out very clearly in this motion, what the Government has set out and given so far is not redress; it is grants, and again, as has been pointed out, in many situations those grants are not even coming near to covering the costs of the damage people are living with. The people living in these homes need and deserve redress. That is why the Social Democrats are completely backing this motion and will continue to support it. Deputy Ward and others will continue to push for these homeowners to get what they need and deserve throughout this Dáil term.

Is ceart daonna é tithíocht. Housing is a human right but the Government does not believe that. If it did, it would not allow this situation where people are living in unsafe homes that are literally crumbling around them. Not only are they physically unsafe, they are damaging the health, particularly the mental health, of the people living in them. I wrote in my own book about a concept called chronic housing stress, which is chronic, psychosocial strain that results from living in situations of prolonged periods of housing stress. One of the causes is when housing is substandard whether because of mould, damp, or a structural problem. I quoted in my book survey research that showed that approximately 70% of those directly affected by mica and pyrite were suffering from anxiety, 65% had difficulty sleeping, 46% were affected by low mood and 25% were affected by depression. They called it a constant source of dread every day, a dark place where they could not escape from the fear of what was to come. They do not feel secure in their homes. They feel trapped. This is absolutely unacceptable.

Regarding the notion of this grant, this is not a project or initiative that people are undertaking; these are vital repairs to homes that directly result from regulatory failure. One of the most frustrating and annoying aspects of this is that it also results from Government failure and the hands-off approach that allowed cowboy builders and developers to wreak havoc on these communities. Where is the accountability? Where is the forcing of those developers, some of whom are still in business today and will benefit from the VAT cut the Government introduced in the budget? Builders and developers get VAT cuts, and what do the people whose homes are crumbling get? They get grants that do not even cover the cost of remediating their homes. These people are not stupid. They see it and feel it. They see a Government that gives VAT cuts to developers and builders but will not fund the homes collapsing around them.

We talk about inequality and the Taoiseach harps on about how he is all for a progressive society and Fianna Fáil was always the party that had a social conscience. There is no social conscience in Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael when thousands of people’s homes are crumbling around them and they have no sense of where the end point is. Where is the point when they will be able to live in a home where their children will be able to wake up every morning without the fear that the house is going to crumble around them?

Something I have written extensively about and highlighted is the impact of the housing crisis on children. This is one aspect of our 20-year housing crisis. The children do not understand and cannot conceptualise the same way as an adult who understands, “Okay, the house is physically unsound. We are doing what we can. It might not fall down tomorrow; it might fall down in a few weeks.” Children cannot understand that. They wake up every morning wondering whether the house is going to fall down around them. Let us think of the impact on those children, the stress they live with, and how that impacts on how their brain develops. We know stress in children has lifelong impacts. The Government does not consider the children of those living in homes affected by pyrite, in homelessness, or in hidden homelessness.

We need a change in our approach to housing. We need to treat it as a human right, and supporting 100% Redress is the start of that.

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