This Bill should have been an opportunity to correct a fundamentally broken system regarding everything from building control to where we are heading right now. Instead, we are laying more complexity on top of injustice and calling it progress. I have submitted 18 pages of amendments to improve this scheme, to make it fair and to make it work, yet more than half of these amendments have been thrown out, including an amendment providing for a March cut-off date. However, 43 families were absolutely left behind having been reassured by the previous housing Minister that this would not happen. They were abandoned. My amendment to provide interim arrangements regarding IS 465 in line with scientific evidence and reinstating the original engineering determinations was thrown out. I refer to 160 families who were downgraded and left behind. The proposal for movable modular homes as an option to ultimately save the State in terms of ancillary grants and payments was left behind.

Sentiment score: 0.21

I am speaking on building control. There is building control in this.

Sentiment score: 0.00

If am not allowed to talk about building control, there are building control elements all over this. Okay, I will move on. The transitional provisions in section 32 transitional provisions are welcome because they ensure that previous applications are not invalidated, but they do not address the systemic delays. Part 3, which amends the Building Control Act 1990, links defective concrete remediation to national building standards.. This is necessary for safety. Sections 31 to 33, inclusive, update certificates and terminology, ensuring continuity, but also increase administrative complexity. Homeowners already affected and stressed are facing heavier burdens of paperwork and inspection approvals while living with uncertainty while homes crumble down around them. Safety and building control are vital. We must balance that against practical implementation, in particular when local authorities already wrestling with the administration of the scheme as it stands are struggling. The Minister and Department frequently claim they have consulted homeowners. The reality is quite different. The so-called homeowner liaison officer had not consulted with MAG for over a year after they said they had. I represent constituents directly every day. I have reported this on the floor of the Dáil and the Government is simply not listening to what is going on on the ground. It is heading for another failure. It is voting down amendments for the people I represent. This is about accountability, not plaudits. I also want to note that my constituents who applied for auxiliary grants and were turned down, and had been living in a car with their family since September, were granted them this week. The Minister and House can rebrand certificates and rename schemes all they want. The system remains incapable of delivering timely and fair outcomes for homeowners. The Bill had the potential to correct a fundamentally broken system, but that is gone. It puts burdens on homeowners and councils and creates new avenues for delays. Visible damage is not a reliable measure. Science and a proper protocol are what we need. We need science and safety. We need to implement these changes but are not doing that. Auxiliary grants for modular homes and end-to-end turnkey packages for everybody affected by defective concrete, from apartments to houses, is the only way we will get out of this. Mark my words; there will be death. Somebody will die in a defective concrete home. I and my colleagues have tried, but we are not being listened to. Will we be listened to when this makes headlines and starts to affect the Government? That is all I am going to say on this.

Sentiment score: -0.05