Homeowner at Ireland Living in a house in a defective neighborhood, “crashed like Weetabix” said that the compensation plan announced by the government would still leave them with devastating bills of up to 80,000 euros (£60,000).
Earlier this week, the government announced a long-awaited remediation plan for an estimated 6,000 people living in houses that must be demolished and rebuilt. The government said that the plan will cost 2.2 billion euros, which means that homeowners will not have to bear the upfront costs.
At first, the government seemed to have fulfilled many of the demands on behalf of those who built houses with blocks containing too much mineral mica, which caused the blocks to crack and shatter.
But after studying the details—especially adding a dwindling element to the bailout funding—activists condemned the government’s plan as a cynical attempt to grab positive headlines.
The government’s funding for reconstruction was reduced from the initial 1,000 square feet (93 square meters) of 145 Euros per square foot to the next 1,000 Euros per square foot of 110 Euros and 100 Euros per square foot thereafter. Activists say this leaves a major gap for those who need to demolish and rebuild their houses.
“As far as the contractor is concerned, it will cost me 79,000 Euros,” said Angeline Lardy, acting vice-principal of a school in Donegal Cardona. Live in a house that must be demolished“If I go to the bank to look for it, they will laugh at me because my collateral is a dilapidated house.
“I am very disgusted,” she said. “I can’t believe that after so many years of hard work, the government has decided to treat us like this. This is a shocking behavior.
She said she felt betrayed by the local councillor, the Minister of Agriculture, Charlie McConalogue. “I don’t know how he can drive through town,” she said. “He knows the pain people are suffering, but he doesn’t seem to take any responsibility at the government level.”
In the town and hinterland where Ruddy lived, the houses were cracked and collapsed everywhere due to defective building blocks containing mica.
The plan announced two days ago was the culmination of a 10-year campaign carried out by homeowners, who discovered cracks in their newly built houses within a few years of moving in.
Many people initially blamed the builders, but gradually discovered that these building blocks contained too much mica.
This plan is called the solution, and the compensation amount for each house is up to 420,000 Euros.
Paddy Diver, a spokesperson for Mica Action Group, said: “The only way to solve this problem is for the government to ask the Housing Authority to repair our house.”
He accused the government of acting “maliciously” and said that the floating ratio factor suddenly appeared on them and was not part of the negotiation process.
Activists are now talking about launching a new protest “closing the streets of Dublin before Christmas” with the possible support of truck drivers and farmers.
Sinn Fein MP from Donegal, Pearse Doherty, called on the government to cancel the sliding scale plan and “return to the drawing board.” He said the plan was “useless for the family”.
Ruddy said the impact of the mica scandal on the mental health of her school’s parents and children is obvious.
“Yesterday I had a child who came to me and said,’My dad is in a dark place.’ I don’t know where we start,” she said.
