Mary Fitzpatrick (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I urge the Leader to contact the Minister for Finance before he publishes the finance Bill and ask him to extend, in budget 2022, the provision that exists for commercial residential landlords to claim tax relief to address fire defects in apartments to owner-occupiers and social landlords. This is an issue that has been aired on many occasions.The Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage has established an independent working group, which is evaluating the cost of these works and their extent. The Department of Finance, to be fair, is engaged on that working group. In the meantime the owner-occupiers are living in what can only be described as ticking time bombs. They are living in apartments that have inadequate fire protection. They cannot sleep at night for fear of smelling smoke or the sound of a fire. It is unnerving for them. On top of that, the home insurance they had is due to run out by the end of this year. The insurance companies will not extend it beyond next year. There is an urgency now for an intervention. We were all horrified by Grenfell and when Priory Hall was discovered, Dublin City Council moved promptly to address that. I urge the Leader to write to the Minister for Finance and urge him to even make a time-bound limited intervention in budget 2022 to extend the same provisions to owner-occupiers of apartments and social landlords that exist for commercial landlords.

I also thank Senator Keogan for raising that issue. It is really heartbreaking to hear that story. It is unbelievable for that individual and family and for all of our community. We all need to recognise that there are a lot of toxic and very ill people in our communities and in our society. We must all do what we can to address that and support those who are being victimised. It is really wrong.