Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I echo the warm welcome you have issued, a Leas-Chathaoirligh, to our visitors, including the Australian ambassador to Ireland. It is good to see him here.I thank the Minister of State for coming into the House to take this important Commencement matter. I have no doubt that many colleagues will be aware of people who, in good faith, either bought a house or had a house built by a contractor and who were properly bonded and insured. People who either purchased or built such a house would have had professionals checking out the bonds to ensure there was proper insurance and so forth but, some years later, would have discovered defects. However, when they sought redress, in some cases the builders had gone out of business. There is no form of come back for them. Companies have gone bust, so to speak. In some cases, people retained professional expertise who did not do their job in terms of ensuring there were proper bonds, insurance and redress in place if something were to go wrong. There are such people, and thankfully they are a minority, in every county, including in my county, and we need to do something to help them because they are living in homes that are defective and, in some cases, not habitable. Some of them have to move out because the home has to be demolished. They are in turmoil because they do not know how they will fund the retrofitting or, in some cases, the demolition and rebuilding of their homes.

Much has been done to help people, particularly by this Government, but this is a group in our society that deserves some help from the Government. The economy has turned a corner. Building has commenced again. We are in a better position financially than we were previously. In these minority of cases, something should be done to give some comfort to people who find themselves in such a terrible position.