Rose Conway-Walsh urges action on pyrite and defective blocks
Rose Conway-Walsh addressed the Dáil about the crisis caused by pyrite and defective concrete blocks, urging the Minister for Finance to accept a time-limited amendment and implement practical solutions. She said homeowners face urgent humanitarian problems, including displacement, structural damage and lack of alternative accommodation, and called for immediate measures and a full public inquiry.
Amendment and temporary measures
The speaker argued the proposed amendment makes sense and is time limited. She said it would allow homeowners who can rebuild to access alternative accommodation by incentivising landlords to let short-term rentals in coastal areas such as Mayo, Donegal and Sligo.
Humanitarian impact on homeowners
She described families forced to vacate homes urgently, citing one mother and her children and reporting walls so cracked that rats and mice can enter. She highlighted deteriorating mental and physical health among affected homeowners, including households with children with disabilities.
Sinn Féin's proposed fixes and past engagement
Rose Conway-Walsh said Sinn Féin has pursued practical solutions for over a decade, presenting proposals to government and working with an action group in Mayo. She recalled negotiating just over 20 changes to the first scheme to improve redress and sought 100% support to enable people to rebuild their homes and lives.
Call for inquiry and appeal to the Minister for Finance
She renewed a call for a full public inquiry into the defective concrete block scandal, saying the problem should never have happened and may have been avoidable. She appealed directly to the Minister for Finance to focus on the solutions presented and to allow families to rebuild their homes and lives without further delay.
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I'm really asking you to think about this amendment because we in Sinn Féin are trying to find practical solutions. Indeed, I've been trying to find practical solutions to the situation with pyrite and defective concrete blocks for over a decade now. And we keep presenting solutions to government, but you're not accepting them. So I would just ask you to look at that, this amendment, even in itself, and I'll tell you the reason why. Firstly, it makes sense. It is time limited as well. But there are homeowners who are now in a position to rebuild their homes, but they don't have alternative accommodation. And that is particularly along the coastal areas, like Deputy Doherty said, Mayo, Donegal and Sligo. And there is a high number of short-term rentals in that area that could be used were we to incentivise those landlords to be able to let out the homes. It's a time limited situation we have here. However long it takes to rebuild the homes. Now, people gathered, people from Mayo gathered outside the Dáil here yesterday. I'm not sure if you met any of them. I know one in particular, one mother and her children. And I think you'll hear the story of where the cracks are so wide in the wall that the rats and the mice are coming through the wall and they've had to vacate their home urgently as well. There are families in this situation that are in really dire humanitarian situations. This is a tiny thing, tiny thing that needs to be done here. But please, I would ask you not to continue turning your back. We have always been a 100% redress party right from the beginning. Indeed, when the first scheme came out, we fought to have the first scheme in place. When the first scheme came out, we sat down with the action group in Mayo. We worked out just over 20 things that could be done to that scheme that would have alleviated a lot of the problems we have talked about and talked about since. And would have given people 100% to be able to rebuild their homes and to rebuild their lives. And I would remind you as well, Thonis, you know, many families are made up where you have one, two and maybe three children with disabilities. They are trying to manage all of this. The mental health and the physical health of the homeowners I see deteriorating. I have seen deteriorating over the years. We really, and I would just ask you, in your new role as Minister for Finance, I would really ask you to take this in hand. We are continuously presenting you with solutions of how to deal with the defective concrete box scandal. We have to remember that this was avoidable in the first place. It should never, ever have happened. And I know that when we do, and we absolutely need a full public inquiry into what has gone on here, you will see that it could have been avoidable and it should have been avoidable. But there are things that can be done right here now. And I would ask you, in your role as Minister for Finance, if you were just to just focus on the solutions that are being presented to you. And once and for all, let these families get on with rebuilding their homes and rebuilding their lives that have been destroyed through no fault of their own. Gourmet Málgut. Thank you.
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