Remediation of Dwellings Damaged by the Use of Defective Concrete Blocks (Amendment) Bill 2025: Second Stage Seanad Éireann — 2025-12-11 ============================================================ Sarah O'Reilly (AON), Agricultural Panel Well done to Senators Gallagher and Boyle. Senator Blaney was in here earlier and he was more defensive. He said there has been real progress with the scheme. I disagree with him. If there had been real progress made and people were satisfied, the 100% Redress Party would not have had four councillors and one TD elected. The people of Donegal voted with their feet. They are not satisfied. They are not happy. They are fighting for their lives and for support. They felt they had to go outside the normal parties to get that. The people who are suffering and living the nightmare that is happening in Donegal got themselves elected and got themselves here. When I canvassed in Donegal last February, I met Joy Beard. I pulled up at her house. It is only half there. She lives in a caravan behind her house. It was a real eye-opener for me to go up there and see exactly what is happening. Anyone who is dealing with this issue, who is drawing up regulations or Bills, or administering or advising should go up there and see what is happening. It puts it in perspective. I went into the Dáil Chamber with Senator Manus Boyle yesterday and watched the amendments. I watched every one of Deputy Charles Ward's amendments being refused. Charles Ward had 18 pages of amendments to the Bill and the Government rejected every one of them last night. It also refused amendments proposed by the Opposition. I have been to Donegal and visited homes affected by defective concrete. As other Members said, I could have put my fist through the walls. People's homes are crumbling before their eyes. People who are living in those homes and who have lived experiences spent hours painstakingly putting together amendments only for the Government to turn around and reject every one of them. Anyone connected to this redress scheme should go and visit Donegal. The attitude seems to be that the Government knows best. Pat The Cope Gallagher, a Government TD, said that the current set-up is not working. He is right. What homeowners are going through - costs, accommodation, funding, bureaucracy, time, the delay for test results - is a never-ending, exhausting and complicated mess. Why are families waiting nine or ten months to find out what they already know? No family should be put through that. There is inequality regarding postcodes. The pyrite scheme in Leinster got 100% redress with very little battling. It is not fine and the Bill will not fix the problem. It is also not realistic. We need nothing less than a 100% redress scheme that is fair and accessible. I agree with Deputy Ward that there needs to be a public inquiry into how this went so badly wrong for the people of Donegal. The Minister of State must listen to the people who are trying to talk to him. I agree with the Senators from Donegal who spoke about the trauma. There is going to be generational trauma from this for years to come. These people need support. They need the Minister of State to listen and to be able to change if he feels it should be done, not because somebody says he cannot. --- 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/seanad/2025-12-11/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:27+00:00 Sitting date: 2025-12-11