Michael Collins (Cork South-West, Independent Ireland Party)

I am in full support of this vital motion to reform the defective concrete redress scheme. Families across Ireland are living in homes that are crumbling around them - unsafe, uninsurable and unfit for human habitation. The current scheme is failing them. The appeals are delayed for years. Partial repairs are unsafe, and the financial burden is crushing. These families did nothing wrong, yet they are being taxed twice and forced to manage complex rebuilds on their own. I agree that we need to stop partial remediation, restore full redress and establish an independent authority to oversee the process. Mental health supports, emergency housing and fair access to insurance and mortgages must be guaranteed. When people buy their first house or new home, the excitement of getting the keys and walking through the doors is second to none. The vision they have for their new home such as what colour the walls will be painted, what kind of furniture they plan to buy, what kind of a kitchen they want to put in and all the usual joy that comes with a new home for them is gone. What has happened to these people is a nightmare. Their dreams are crumbling around them just like their homes. Instead of sitting around the kitchen table talking about their future plans, they are sitting around the table in limbo. They cannot plan for the future. They cannot even think about the future because they are stuck. Most people have very little knowledge of building materials, court cases or dealing with banks on a daily basis but these people now think of little else other than the fact their homes are falling down and they cannot put their homes on the market and sell. Let us face it: who in their right mind would buy one of these homes?

It is not just the blocks. I have a case right now where the structure of the house is completely unstable, not because of the materials, but because of the builder and he is walking away scot-free. We have all heard of cowboy builders and, unfortunately, there are plenty of them still out there. People buy homes in good faith with engineer reports and mortgages based on those reports yet they have no hope of getting justice when things go wrong. This is unacceptable and is why strong, new laws must be passed that protect homeowners and hold those responsible to account. If there is anything we can do in the House to make this easier for anyone affected by these defective blocks and defective building practices, we should. The nightmare needs to end.

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