Taoiseach visit to Letterkenny could spark a change of venue for the mica protest

No venue has been confirmed as yet for the visit of An Taoiseach Micheál Martin to Letterkenny this Saturday.

He was invited to a meeting that was originally to be held in the Radisson Blu Hotel but the venue has notified the organisers, the Letterkenny Chamber of Commerce, that it cannot facilitate the event.

This was also to be the focal point of a huge Mica march to let the taoiseach know how unhappy mica-affected families are with the lack of progress in dealing with the crumbling houses crisis.

Mica Action Group PRO, Michael Doherty said people affected with mica were angry and annoyed no attempt had been made to facilitate them

"The bottom line is there's been no invitation forwarded to us or any homeowner representatives to come to talk to him.

"We then invited ourselves as such when we put a request to Minister Charlie McConalogue on March 18 to request that we get a chance to meet with him and explain our frustrations about what's going on in Donegal but we've got no response - and that's from our minister in our patch, the epicentre of the entire mica crisis and we've been ignored and I don't think we should be ignored."

He added homeowners should be in Letterkenny on Saturday for a dignified protest.

"I would call for as many people as possible to come out on Saturday and be counted. Let's not be ignored, that's the bottom line. I've never seen more frustration so let's do something useful with it.

He said they had 13 pages of unanswered questions in relation to the mica situation.

"It's one thing to ignore us on paper but it's a different thing to ignore us if we are there in our thousands.

Mr Doherty also urged holiday homeowners from Derry and all parts of Northern Ireland to protest at the Taoiseach's visit to the Playhouse in Derry tomorrow, Friday at 7pm.

"We have holiday homeowners that have been completely left out of the scheme, holiday homes who feel abandoned. I ask you to mobilise yourselves, get your MLAs and councillors involved and do not be ignored. Get a presence and do not be ignored because we are being ignored but not to the level you are, you are not even on the scheme," he said.

A spokesman for the Radisson Blu said they had advised the Letterkenny Chamber of Commerce that it cannot facilitate their event on Saturday.

The Chamber of Commerce has not notified of an alternative venue yet.