Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)

As my colleague, Deputy Mac Lochlainn, said, this amendment is long overdue. It is symptomatic of the Government. It has been two years since it was asked to look at the costs and it is a year on from the general election when it said it was going to bring it in. We are taking this legislation now, legislation that was published at 10 o'clock this morning. This shows how much the Government cares about people in my constituency, in Mayo and in other areas that have defective blocks. The type of approach the Government has taken to this legislation is absolutely appalling, as is the length of time it has taken. It is cruel, heartless, brutal, ruthless, cold-hearted, detached and indifferent. These are words that families who live in houses with defective blocks have used to describe to me the approach of this Government. I agree 100% with them because what the Government is doing is cruel. There is no defence anymore in terms of the Government saying it does not know what the issues are. People's houses are crumbling down around them. The Government brought in a scheme it pretended was 100% redress. All it was was pretence, because there would be no issues today if we had a 100% redress scheme. The Government would not be playing around with a 10% increase in allowances and grants and backdating it to a certain date, with cut-off points that are absolutely cruel, heartless, cold, indifferent, detached and everything those families in County Donegal said to me about this Government.

It is appalling what is happening. People are stuck in a crisis and in absolute misery not of their own making. They have turned to the Government. They have marched in the streets. As Deputy Mac Lochlainn said, they have filled the Gallery here pleading and begging that their elected representatives would hear them, step up and make sure they had equality. That is what they want. They want equality and not something new, different or more than anybody else. They want the same scheme other people in the east of this country were able to get, where their houses were fixed and where 100% redress was provided. The Government has brought forward a small increase in relation to the grants but costs have already overtaken that increase and it has only been applied to works carried out from March 2024. This means people are still going to be left behind.

The promise the Government made that earlier movers would not be penalised is one it has fairly broken in this legislation because it is penalising early movers. It is breaking its promise and its commitment. Again, this scheme is so deeply flawed that what we need is not tinkering with it but a proper scheme. We need a scheme that delivers 100% redress, one not based on laptop studies but on the proper, up-to-date science that actually deals with the issue going on in people's homes. We need a scheme that not just deals with people's homes but one that deals with the 12 schools in Donegal that have defective blocks-----

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