Latest Defective Blocks amendment still to treat people as 'second-class citizens'

Sinn Féin Donegal Deputies Pádraig Mac Lochlainn and Pearse Doherty said that while thousands of homeowners in Dublin received genuinely state-delivered 100% redress through the Pyrite Remediation Scheme, families in Donegal are still being left with massive financial burdens and rules that punish early movers and leave most homeowners behind.

They also criticised the amount of time it took for these amendments to the 2022 Defective Concrete Block legislation to be brought forward (over a year) and the fact that TDs only had access to the text of the amendments hours before it came before the Dáil.

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The government are insisting that the increased cap to the grant can only cover work from the arbitrary date of 29th March 2024, a move that will leave many behind without any justification and despite promises made by government that this wouldn't happen.

Speaking, Teachta Mac Lochlainn said: “This is a long, long time coming. As we know, the 2022 legislation was rammed through the Dáil. The homeowners who were up in the Public Gallery were absolutely traumatised. They were absolutely betrayed.

“They were betrayed by a scheme that condemned our people in Donegal and the west of Ireland to be second-class citizens.

“It is absolutely shameful. There is first-class citizenship and there is second-class citizenship.

“If you are in Dublin and Leinster, the pyrite remediation scheme is genuinely 100% redress delivered directly by the State. The issue is the Government is still excluding people.

"In terms of these amendments, it is bad enough that the Government took over a year to bring them forward but now they are excluding dozens of families. It is so cruel.

"They will be out tens of thousands of euros. Why did the Government put in the cutoff date of 29 March 2024? I ask the Minister not to be cruel and not to exclude dozens of families who are desperately waiting on this money.

Teachta Doherty added: “There is no defence anymore in terms of the Government saying it does not know what the issues are. People's houses are crumbling down around them.

"The Government brought in a scheme it pretended was 100% redress. All it was, was a pretence, because there would be no issues today if we had a 100% redress scheme.

"The Government would not be playing around with a 10% increase in allowances and grants and backdating it to a certain date, with cut-off points that are absolutely cruel, heartless, cold, indifferent, detached and everything those families in County Donegal said to me about this Government.

"The Government has brought forward a small increase in relation to the grants but costs have already overtaken that increase and it has only been applied to works carried out from March 2024. This means people are still going to be left behind.

“What we need is not tinkering but a proper scheme that delivers 100% redress. We need a scheme that also deals with the 12 schools in Donegal, the childcare centres and our community buildings. We in Sinn Féin are going to stand with them shoulder to shoulder until we get 100% redress because they deserve nothing less.”