Mary Seery Kearney (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, for taking this Commencement matter at very short notice this morning. I appreciate that. He is well aware of the issues arising for homeowners in particular due to apartment defects. I applaud the work of the report of the working group examining defects in purpose-built apartments and duplexes between 1991 and 2013, which was published on 28 July. The report points to a number of factors as having created the situations where homes have been left with fire defects, water ingress, structural issues and a myriad of other issues. They defined the defects in question as being attributable to defective design, defective or faulty workmanship, defective materials, and any combination of these at the time of construction, and as being in contravention of the relevant part of the building regulations. One thing that is clear from that definition and all of the findings in the report is that the owners of these properties are not at fault. It is not a situation of their creation, yet those homeowners are now faced with enormous, and in many instances, life-changing bills. While they have to continue living, in some cases in dangerous and unsafe properties that they cannot sell, one of the issues I raise this morning is that they cannot insure them. The hardship to owners is obvious. Extreme stress is being caused by the enormous financial demands on these families and now at a time of a cost-of-living crisis and uncertainty about our economic stability and all that is facing us in the coming months, they have no way out of this nightmare. They cannot sell. They cannot escape it in any way, shape or form. They are locked into these homes, knowing that in some instances they can be death traps, in particular in the case of a fire defect.

I have well over 100 emails from people and I have received phone calls from people who were crying because they do not know how to face the demands that have been made of them. In the area of Dublin South-Central, which is my home constituency, there is a particularly large number of apartment complexes. People have been given demands, even in recent months, for anywhere between €32,000 and €84,000. Most people cannot raise the amount of money that is being demanded of them in the short term.The report was published. Owner management companies now have to respond in respect of the defects. We know the situation and we know where the fault lies. We also know where the fault absolutely does not lie, and yet it has been placed on the people affected. A woman who appeared before the Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage, almost two years ago now, described putting her child to sleep at night in an apartment where she knew there were fire defects. We need an urgent response to that. Insurers are refusing to insure premises. In response to the Grenfell tragedy, they are now introducing additional requirements in respect of cladding that have nothing to do with this. There are insurance requirements involved. These homeowners are being caught in every possible way.

There are also owner management companies that are reluctant to start the works because they are waiting for the Government response. They want to know when they will receive money from the Government to support them in going through the process. There is a delay and, with that, we have a potential disaster on our hands. We will act very fast on the morning after a fire. We need to act now before there is one. Thank God, thus far there have been no deaths and injuries arising from this situation, but we must act. What is the Government's response to this issue? Is there a sense of urgency? There is certainly a clear sense of urgency in the community and in Dublin South-Central in particular.