Mattie McGrath: Redress Scheme Ignores Families' Foundations

Cathaoirle, I too want to compliment Deputy Ward and talk to Ward before this motion and indeed all the work he has done since being elected and before he was elected, and the people in the gallery, Councillor Dennis McGee and Councillor Joy Beard, and indeed some staff of Deputy Ward and people and families who are affected. How many more times must he make the journey to Dublin, to Balliard Quay, with the bags, plastic bags under my gween as knobs of concrete and they're like sawdust when they come here. So it's quite obvious Minister, the people's government have made efforts but look, I can't for the life of me understand how anyone could decide to have a redress scheme for the blocks and the martyrs and the walls and forget the foundations. I have some experience of a plan to hire contractors and to say that in foundation work and site work and everything else, and the foundation is the most important part of anything. And the foundation of the families. And this is so distressing to the families that have to put up with this for so, so long now and it's so distressing that the foundations are not included. It's just pure illiteracy. And we have the standards and regulations that we have in so many other areas in this country but they're ignored. We have regulators for everything. They have fancy offices with brass plate outside, a CEO and staff, but they do nothing. They're both toothless, useless and fruitless, in my opinion. There are many, there was another one last week, we appoint them every week, there are thousands of them there now, but what about the families? It's a noble intention of any family, any person, to build their own house and to have a house for their wife and family. And most noble intention in the world. Now they're forced to replace their homes because of the incompetence and begarding of a big company that have been fined hundreds of millions all over the world, in Canada and America and everything else. But we won't fine them here, not at all. We'll put the levy on the ordinary man trying to build a house, a 5% levy to pay for this. Instead of making the company, everyone knows who it is, I'd be nearly afraid to speak the name, even with privilege. CRH. And they have names of, different names and the lorries going in and out, but they own the whole lot because they have a monopoly. And it's disgraceful and despicable. I've attended their AGMs out here in Dublin a few times with not only my key issues, but countless other issues when they got away with blatant corruption. And this is a shocking case of big business in the pockets of the big parties. Blatant. I was in a party for long enough, I know how it works. And that's the holy olive of it. And the families are left thrown to the wind. And we'll have investigations and more reviews, you know, motion there. It's the same, just past the pastoral, down the road. But think of the families that are sleeping in their houses in fear. My daughter, Councillor Marnie, was in Donegal and her colleagues up there brought her around and showed her the houses. And showed her the states the houses, full of, empty, not got any in there and so on. Had to move out. If this happened in Ukraine, we'd be talking about it. And now we'll find hundreds of millions to rebuild Ukraine. Don't be worried about it. No questions asked, no reviews, no tests of the concrete, no anything else. Just dunk out the money to them. But our own people don't matter. Our own families don't matter to this government. We know that, not putting it to you personally Minister, I know you're a hard-working Minister, I suppose Minister Brown, but it's just not acceptable what's going on. And it's time to lay it nakedly out there and support the people, our families, who honed themselves. They didn't have to get anyone to hone them.