Remediation of Dwellings Damaged by the Use of Defective Concrete Blocks (Amendment) Bill 2025: Committee and Remaining Stages Dail Éireann — 2025-12-10 ============================================================ Pearse Doherty (SF), Donegal The amendments we are dealing with in this legislation - the amendments tabled by the Sinn Féin Deputies - go to the very core of the issue. If accepted by the Minister, they would probably satisfy the vast majority of people in my constituency regarding the challenges they have. Of course, there are other issues, including those related to the administration of the scheme and the criteria, but a core issue is the 100% redress, as we lay out in amendment No. 5 and as campaigned for in my constituency and elsewhere for many years. Despite the campaign, the Government fails to acknowledge the reality that people will be left behind until redress of 100% is provided. In amendment No. 7, we have put forward an amendment dealing with the fact that what is required is an end-to-end remediation scheme for all those impacted by defective concrete blocks and related building materials. That is also fair because asking individuals who never thought they would be project-managing the rebuilding of their homes to take on that responsibility, whether they are young or old, single or married, is absolutely appalling. It was not requested in other areas where there were defects and it should not be asked of people in my constituency or others right across the State as the number of victims of this scandal increases. Amendment No. 7 also deals with issues such as retrospective payments, an issue that has seen so many people, including early movers, insulted. Also, there are the issues of the damage threshold, semi-detached properties and side-by-side remediation. I have heard my colleagues speak about the real impact of this legislation and of what our amendments would do for the lives of people across the State. What is going to be the end point of this legislation that the Minister is putting through tonight? If he is being true to himself and knows anything about how this matter is playing out on the ground, he will know there are people who will not be able to rebuild their homes. Therefore, in five years or ten years, this issue will not have gone away. The affected homes are going to deteriorate and crumble, and their owners are going to be prisoners within them because the Government has a scheme that does not allow them to rebuild. Under the scheme, people are forced to find tens of thousands of euro. I spoke to one individual who described the absolute nightmare he went through for a number of years. I asked him what he thought it would cost his own pocket. He said he did not even want to think about it, but it was probably in the range of €80,000 to €100,000. That is money people do not have. I spoke to a fellow here last night who was not even at the stage of tenders and so on. They are accepted for demolition. They are not even thinking about where the money would come from. This scheme fails people of all types. It fails people because the Government is demanding of them that they put their hands in their pockets, go into debt and find tens of thousands of euro, whether they are borrowing it for families, digging into nest eggs or whatever it is, for something that they had no hand, act or part in. The fact is that their homes were built with deleterious materials. Indeed, it is the State that is responsible, that should be regulating these products and that is culpable, and that is why 100% redress should be provided. The Minister might try to fool himself. Those in the Government parties who will vote for this Bill might try to fool themselves. I agree with Deputy Conway-Walsh that there are TDs who are genuine because they know neighbours and, in some cases, family members who are involved, but they know that this legislation is locking them into a nightmare, not for next year or the year after, but for tens of years. There are elderly people who have no income outside of the State pension. Where will they get the €50,000, €60,000 or sometimes €90,000 to rebuild their house? This is not going away. We will be back here and the only thing that will change is that these homes will be more expensive to rebuild in the future because the Government is refusing to deal with the reality here and now. This crisis is only getting bigger. I see it in my county. Deputy Mac Lochlainn comes from the epicentre of the crisis in Donegal, the Inishowen Peninsula. You would find it tough to walk the length of yourself and not know somebody who was living in a home that was crumbling, who was a victim of the defective block scandal. That has spread in the east of the county and elsewhere in the west of the county. Every single day, we hear of more and more cases in the west, whether in Gweedore, Glenties or Kilcar. It goes right through. I have seen what Charlie McConalogue put out and it is insulting, because people who are living this nightmare know the reality. If the Minister thinks this is going away, it is not. I genuinely believe that the Government needs to just bite the bullet on this issue. It would be perverse were it the case, but is it the plan to force people to find the €100,000 to rebuild their homes and then have to deal with the ones who never had that money in the first instance, could not borrow or could not get a loan or another mortgage, and then provide something for them in five, seven, eight, nine or ten years? The Minister needs to get real about this and do the right thing. These amendments are sensible. It is what the campaign and individuals are looking for. It is what Sinn Féin would deliver if we were in government. It is the right thing and the fair thing to do. When people come to me, whether it is somebody looking at a medical issue or a social welfare, or somebody who is living in a home that is crumbling around them, I try to step into their shoes. I try to think of them like my mum, sister or somebody I know personally. On this issue, I find it impossible to step into their shoes because I have been in their homes and I cannot imagine the nightmare that they are going through. What the Government is doing is cruel beyond words. The Minister should accept the Sinn Féin amendments. They make sense. They have the backing of the community and of the campaigns. Whether the Minister likes it or not, legislation will be introduced in this House at some stage with 100% redress, because that is the only way we will deal with this issue once and for all. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2025-12-10/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:27+00:00 Sitting date: 2025-12-10