Kevin Humphreys (Labour) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State is welcome. I am going to bring him back to his most recent visit to this Chamber on 29 May at which time I raised an issue about apartment dwellers. During the Celtic tiger, more than 200,000 apartments were built. Of that stock, there are approximately 130,000 around our cities and towns and, of those, an estimated 90,000 were built through self-certification during the Celtic tiger. I have approached the Minister at length about this issue. The owners of those apartments are facing bills of between €5,000 and €50,000 to repair defects. I am not sure that the Minister of State understands the levels of upset and mental and financial pressures being experienced by apartment owners. I asked the Minister of State when he was here on 29 May if he would meet a particular group from the Beacon South Quarter which has practical ways of how to relieve the pressure on those 90,000 owners of apartments in this State. The Minister said he would meet that group but the most recent email the group sent, seeking to set up a meeting, was 10 July. I would very much welcome it if the Minister could meet them in the next week or two. They have practical solutions that could be explored. The way apartment owners have been treated is disgraceful compared to how owners of house affected by pyrite have been dealt with in Donegal and Mayo, the deserved beneficiaries of the latest scheme that was brought forward. There are still 90,000 apartment dwellers who have legacy issues due to decisions made in both Houses of the Oireachtas to go down the route of self-regulation. I am disappointed the representative from Fianna Fáil has left because that decision lies mainly at Fianna Fáil's door.