Written answers

Wednesday, 31 March 2021

Department of Finance

Defective Building Materials

Photo of Pádraig Mac LochlainnPádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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84. To ask the Minister for Finance if he will convene a forum meeting with the banks and financial institutions in co-operation with the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to request that they immediately play a partnership role with the State and affected families in the financial challenge of making homes safe across counties Donegal and Mayo under the defective concrete blocks grant scheme. [16454/21]

Photo of Paschal DonohoePaschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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I appreciate this is a very difficult issue for households which have been affected by defective concrete blocks and I know my colleague the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, who has responsibility for policy and administration of the State scheme to provide financial assistance to those private households impacted by defective blocks, has met and discussed the implementation of the redress scheme with the Donegal Action Mica Group.

While oversight of the banking sector falls within my remit, including matters relating to the overall policy for the financial sector, the supervisory framework for regulated financial service providers and the overall consumer protection framework for Central Bank regulated entities, I do not have any role in relation to the policies and individual decisions (either of a contractual or voluntary nature) of Central Bank regulated entities. Furthermore, in relation to those banks in which the State has a shareholding interest, this commercial independence is specifically provided for in a legally binding "Relationship Framework" document which states that each bank continues to be a separate economic unit with independent powers of decision making and that it is the respective boards and management of each bank that determines its commercial policies and conducts its day-to-day operations. I am, therefore, precluded as Minister for Finance from any involvement in the commercial and day-to-day decisions of such a bank and accordingly it will not be possible or appropriate for me to intervene with individual banks on this particular matter. However, as the relevant Minister, it is open to the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to engage with any person or entity that he considers to be necessary or desirable in relation to the implementation of the scheme to support impacted households.

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