Gerry Horkan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Leader for outlining the Order of Business, which I certainly support. Unusually for Senators, I will talk about the Order of Business by acknowledging we are finally coming to the end of a Bill introduced in the previous Seanad by former Senator, Pádraig Ó Céidigh. I pay tribute to him, particularly, for the effort he put into bringing this Bill through that Seanad. I also acknowledge the contribution of the Regional Group, which brought it through the Dáil. It will, hopefully, be passed today. It is very useful legislation that, surprisingly, was not previously on the Statute Book. People will now, hopefully, take the offence of perjury more seriously and people who decide to perjure themselves or commit perjury in a court will be pursued more diligently than they have been in the past.

I acknowledge there are significant numbers of people, particularly from Donegal but also Mayo, coming to the convention centre today to highlight their plight regarding mica in their homes. For any of us, the purchase and building of a home is the biggest investment most of us will ever make, certainly in a personal capacity. These defective blocks were sold to so many people who built their houses, which are their sanctuaries, where they live and raise families and where they think they can go to protect themselves from the whole world, only to discover their houses were crumbling and falling down around their ears. It is shocking this was allowed to happen and the people who sold these blocks will not, and cannot, be pursued. I hope that somebody tries. The State should make sure that we protect people and give them redress. The Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, and the Cabinet are dealing with that today, but we really must pursue people.

We need a debate on building controls generally in this House. All of us know of people who have had great experiences with builders and contractors, but equally we all have horror stories. Many of us on local authorities know of people whose houses were not completed properly, where workmanship was shoddy and the tradesmen involved did not do what they were supposed to. We need, as a State, to make sure people working on sites are competent and able to what they do, and, if they are not, that they can be pursued. It is not okay for people to engage in shoddy workmanship. It happens all the time; obviously not in every situation but too often. We need, as a State, to look at how we regulate. People get planning permission, which they do not necessarily complete. There are no checks on that. We need a proper debate and decent action on how we pursue people who do not complete houses the way they should and do not carry out the work they were engaged to do.