Kevin Humphreys (Labour) | Oireachtas source

Yesterday I commended the Government on bringing in the €20 million pilot fund for pyrite and mica remediation, and I welcome it for the people of Donegal and Mayo. The Minister for Rural and Community Development, Deputy Ring, said:

The scheme is an exceptional measure in response to an exceptional need. Some homeowners are in dire straits.

There is many an apartment block with families living in them who are in dire straits. There are fire marshals walking their corridors. They face possible eviction because of safety issues. The Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy McHugh, said Government agreement for the scheme is about protecting families in their homes. Are apartment dwellers not families in their homes? The Minister said also: "It is about ensuring people feel secure and safe in the place where they have set down roots, where they are building a life, rearing a family and planning for their futures." That is all true, but there is another group who have put down roots, who have purchased apartments in good faith and who are left with a legacy issue which is not being addressed. I welcome what is happening in Donegal and Mayo, but it is purely for the election. Not all our citizens are being treated equally. Approximately 70,000 families live in apartments with legacy issues. They have been told the State will not take on any liability. I am asking for equality and fairness, that all our citizens be treated equally, that families living in apartments have the same opportunity to feel safe and secure in their homes, to put down roots, to send their children to school, but above all to feel safe in their apartments.

I propose an amendment to the Order of Business, that the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, would come to the House so that we can ask him why he is not treating all our citizens equally. Why are citizens living in apartment blocks not being treated in the same way as people experiencing pyrite and mica problems? This is a disgrace. There is not a Member in this House who has not been approached by a person living in dire straits in an apartment block who is being asked to pay up to €56,000 to make him or her safe and secure and to prevent fire travelling from one apartment to the other. Those people are not being listened to. Is that because they do not have the Minister for Rural and Community Development and the Minister for Education and Skills to fight for them? Ministers have refused to meet the apartment dwellers. Reluctantly, I am proposing an amendment to the Order of Business such that the Minister for Housing Planning and Local Government, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, will attend this House to deal with this important issue today.