Remediation of Dwellings Damaged by the Use of Defective Concrete Blocks (Amendment) Bill 2025: Committee and Remaining Stages
Seanad Éireann — 2025-12-16
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Frances Black (IND), Industrial and Commercial Panel

This section is trying to convert the State's failure into a financial burden on homeowners. The families affected are not simply seeking compensation. They are seeking safe, habitable homes that the State should have ensured were compliant from the start. They have done absolutely everything right. They have worked hard and saved for their homes and now they are just falling down around them. After decades of regulatory neglect it is disgraceful to suggest that homeowners should carry any additional charge. The law should correct the failure, not penalise the victims. Any scheme that allows local authorities to impose charges on families who have already suffered the impact of their homes crumbling before their eyes is just wrong, unjust, unnecessary and morally questionable. The focus must be on restoring their homes, not creating mechanisms to recoup costs from those who have already borne the brunt of the consequences of the State's failure to regulate. We cannot forget how we got to this point. Homeowners should be assisted without fear of retroactive charges, delays and unnecessary administrative hurdles. We have to make it clear that the State's obligation is to fix what is broken, not to profit from its own failings. The consequences should be clearly laid where the responsibility is held. The section shifts the burden away from the State and onto ordinary families. That is why I strongly oppose it.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2025-12-16/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:28+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-12-16