Kevin Humphreys (Labour) | Oireachtas source

The Taoiseach is indeed welcome.

Many people have mentioned equality, fairness, citizenship, and the Republic. I stand to raise my voice for up to 70,000 apartment owners who live in homes that have a legacy defect. They face bills of between €5,000 to over €50,000 to put right defects to their homes, through no fault of their own. From Blanchardstown to Sandyford and from Sandyford to Cork and Galway they have to pay for fire marshalls to patrol the corridors of their homes 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year. They live in fear of the fire officer asking them to vacate their homes because of safety concerns. Can we, in all honesty, impose that burden on 70,000 families across this State?

As was rightly pointed out, the last Government found a way to help the home owners whose houses had pyrite. I have raised this with Ministers on several occasions and they say the State cannot take on this liability. I say clearly to the Taoiseach that the State failed these 70,000 families by allowing defective homes to be built and to continue there. The least we can do is to offer people some assistance to ensure they can sleep safely in their homes and that they no longer need to have fire marshalls patrolling their corridors. The time for action is now. We have seen the horrific fire in Paris. Thank God there was no loss of life. I certainly do not want to see a horrific fire in an apartment block in this State and to face any great loss of life. I ask the Taoiseach and his Government to act now.