Donegal Senator Pádraig Mac Lochlainn has again appealed to the Government to publish the report of the Expert Panel on the impact of Mica on concrete blocks in family homes across Donegal and to introduce a Redress scheme for the affected families.
He raised the crisis for large numbers of Donegal families in the Seanad today.
Senator Mac Lochlainn said “The Expert panel was established by the government in November 2015. Under their terms of reference, they were to report back to government by May 31st, 2016.
It is simply outageous that a whole year after the deadline, the report has still not been published. Worse still is the fact that the affected families have endured another year with no sign of a Redress Scheme similar to that brought in for the families in Dublin and North Leinster, affected by pyrite in their homes”.
He said there is not a week that goes by that he hasn’t met with or talked to a family here in Donegal, devastated by the crumbling blockwork in their homes.
“They face the dilemma that if they invest in the repair or replacement of this blockwork now, they may not be retrospectively reimbursed under a Redress Scheme. But how much longer do they have to wait?
“The government and the State need to step up to the plate. The lack of building control and regulation by State agencies led to this crisis. These families have been failed. They need solutions and they need them urgently”.
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