Richard Boyd Barrett: Homes crumbling - Government fails redress
Richard Boyd Barrett speaks in support of Deputy Charles Ward’s motion on Defective Block and the failures of the government’s redress scheme. He outlines how defective concrete and weak regulation have left at least 20,000 householders living in homes that are effectively worthless and criticises the inadequate 100% Redress proposals.
Support for campaigners
Richard Boyd Barrett commends Deputy Charles Ward and the 100% Redress Party for relentless campaigning on behalf of tens of thousands affected by Defective Block and defective concrete. He says he supports the motion and has been learning from those directly impacted about the human cost of poor regulation.
Regulatory failures and continuing harm
Boyd Barrett blames Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael for permitting under-regulated developers and a profit-driven construction sector, with devastating consequences including fire safety failures and social housing with damp and mould. He warns these problems are not finished and are still imposing costs and hardship on homeowners and renters.
Inadequate redress and future risks
He highlights that only just over 3,000 people have applied to the government scheme because it is insufficient to cover remediation costs. He criticises the proposal that forces some people to rebuild on potentially unstable foundations instead of giving them the option to fully replace them.
Demands and political consequence
Boyd Barrett calls on the government to withdraw their amendment, adopt what Charles Ward proposes, and provide genuine end-to-end 100% redress so affected families can properly remediate their homes. He stresses the scale of the scandal and the need for a substantive fix for tens of thousands of householders.
We publish thousands of recordings to make Irish politics transparent and resistant to manipulation. Spotted an error? Report it — together we are building a reliable archive of Irish politics.
Can I also commend Deputy Charles Ward for his diligent and relentless campaigning on behalf of the tens of thousands of people affected by Defective Block and Charles being one of those people personally affected along with tens of thousands of others and to commend all of those who work with him and the 100% Redress Party and all of those who have been affected by this for their campaigning and their refusal to take this lying down. I'm very, very glad to support the motion that's been put forward. I'm very glad in a way I don't have the expertise that Charles has and I've been trying to get educated by him about the issue that is not something that has so far at least emerged in my own constituency but I am aware of the consequences of the Fianna Fáil in particular and Fine Gael willingness to allow developers and people in the construction industry to be not properly regulated, not properly controlled and for that to have devastating consequences on homeowners and renters indeed, particularly with the fire safety issues, the many tens of thousands of people affected by fire buildings that weren't built properly and with the fire safety issues and the costs and the hardships that imposed on them and I would say some of that stuff is not over. I recently came across a new social housing development where people within months of moving in have damp and mould and so on all over the place and are having to fight to actually have those things addressed. So this stuff is still going on. So there's a lot at stake on these issues. It's really shocking that 20,000 householders at least are living in homes which are crumbling around their ears and which are now worthless. They worked hard for those homes and they're worthless, they can't sell them and the government seems to be crowing about their redress scheme when if I understand this correctly, the reason only just over 3,000 people have applied for this is because the scheme is so inadequate and that the gap between the cost of remediating your home and what the government are willing to give means that for huge numbers of people affected by this, the scheme that the government are proposing is completely inadequate and will not allow them to remediate their homes. So they are stuck in crumbling homes, unable to deal with the consequences of something that was basically the responsibility of the government and their failure to regulate cowboys, profit driven, unscrupulous people in the construction industry. And then on top of that, where people may try and rebuild their homes with an inadequate scheme, the government is forcing them to build on foundations that may crumble in the future. And where they know the material that could lead to that crumbling is there, the defective substances or the substances that lead to these defects are there and we don't know what will happen in the future rather than give them the option to fully replace those foundations or insisting they build on foundations that could crumble. Now why would you do that? I mean, first of all for the people who have gone through the issue of having their homes crumble around and being workless, having to rebuild them and then make them build on foundations that could crumble again in the future, costing them anxiety, concern and so on and all the hardship that would involve as well as the cost that would be involved in doing that. It really defies belief why the government won't take on board what Charles Ward is saying here and say that people should have the option to fully replace those foundations and of course more generally that the government should be providing that 100% redress from end to end to resolve this for all of those who have been affected by this terrible issue of defective concrete. So yeah, it's extremely disappointing the government have put forward the amendment they have, they should withdraw it and they should take on board what Charles Ward is very reasonably asking for to help these many tens of thousands of people and there may be a lot more affected by this scandal.
Thank you for downloading 🙏
If you publish this material on social media, we would be very grateful if you tagged VideoParliament. It helps us reach more people and keep building a transparent archive of Irish politics.
