Featured Photo: Tomás Seán Devine, Joy Beard and Ali Farren – New Councillors for the 100% Redress Party at the Letterkenny count centre on Monday.
Donegal TD Thomas Pringle has told the Taoiseach that the election of 100% Redress Party councillors is a clear call for action.
The Independent TD called on Taoiseach Simon Harris to note the will of the people and take the chance to fix the defective concrete blocks scheme once and for all.
Speaking in the Dáil today, Deputy Pringle said: “In Donegal, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have returned with only two thirds of the seats they won in 2019, with many of your sitting councillors scraping in on the last counts.
“The 100% Redress party topped the poll in the Carndonagh Electoral Area, which is Minister McConalogue’s backyard, and took four council seats in total. They are now a larger party than Fine Gael on the council.
“And there is a clear message for government here from the people of Donegal in relation to the Defective Block Redress Scheme.”
Ali Farren in Carndonagh, Joy Beard in Buncrana, Tomás Devine in Letterkenny and Denis McGee in Gweedore are all heading to Lifford in the new council term under the newly-formed 100% Redress Party.
Deputy Pringle said their election was a clear message from the electorate: “I’ve raised this issue over 50 times on the floor of this House during the term of this current Dáil, and each and every time, I and other opposition TDs from the county get the same old rhetoric from yourself and the Government.
“You quote figures. You tell me it’s the biggest scheme ever of its kind. You look at me dismissively, as if to say: ‘Sure that’s sorted, why are you bringing it up here again.’ But you don’t really listen. And you haven’t listened as we give voice to the real concerns that families have, living with defective blocks.
“Now you have a chance to do so,” he said.
The deputy said: “The scheme isn’t working. It doesn’t reflect the science that has emerged. Science that was driven by the defective block campaign themselves, not by government departments or the political system. It is failing the families across Donegal whose lives are devastated by defective blocks.
“The defective blocks crisis also affects community buildings, public buildings and everything built in the last 20 years in the county. Reflecting a failed self-certification system brought in by governments of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael.
“You have a chance to fix this. My advice to you is that you should take it. Make a scheme that once and for all works to address the needs of all families in Donegal and indeed those across the country,” he said.
