McConalogue backs 100% redress bid despite new report blow

A SENIOR Government minister said he remains committed to seeking 100% redress to owners of properties affected by mica, despite a new report’s recommendations falling short of that goal.

Agriculture Minister Charlie McConalogue gave a boost to the compensation campaign for homeowners in Donegal, Mayo and other counties.

Earlier this week, a draft report, compiled by a working group set up by Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien, did not recommend 100% redress, as demanded by campaigners.

The report, shared with homeowners late on Thursday night, suggests a revised scheme will not cover 100% of the cost of a mica-affected house needs to be demolished and rebuilt.

However, the agriculture minister said that a 100% redress scheme remained the ambition.

‘I will be working with my Cabinet colleagues over the next period of time to deliver a scheme that will reflect that,’ he told RTÉ.

He said he had no doubt many more mica-affected homeowners would come forward in the coming months, on top of the 1,500 homeowners who have already emerged.

Many of those are in his home county of Donegal.

‘There isn’t a family in the north of the county that doesn’t have a family member affected by this,’ he said.

He acknowledged that any scheme would be ‘expensive’.

Earlier, Peter Burke, a junior minister in the Department of Housing, said he could not say for certain whether mica-affected homeowners would have an answer from the Government on a revised redress scheme by October’s end.

Asked on RTÉ’s The Week in Politics yesterday about the prospect of 100% redress, Mr Burke said: ‘We’re on the one [same] side. We set out a process to resolve this. All these things have to be discussed.’

He said the Government’s three party leaders, as well as Mr O’Brien

and the Attorney General, will discuss an improved compensation scheme over the coming weeks but when he was asked if they’d have an answer by the end of the month he said: ‘I can’t say for sure.’

Taoiseach Micheál Martin, during a visit to Rosslare Port on Friday, told reporters a decision will be made in the coming weeks.

The cost for the revised scheme is *1.4billion, according to the report.

However, the working group said: ‘Based on the homeowners’ final submission, the estimated costs of the changes requested could rise by *1.8billion to *3.2billion.’

If a property can be fixed without demolition, a 100% grant will be provided for ‘remediation options’.

Mr Martin said: ‘It’s not the final report that will come to us and certainly to the three party leaders and to Cabinet.’

Sinn Féin’s Pearse Doherty said on Sunday that the Government had a responsibility to the families who have been impacted by mica.

‘The State needs to do right by these families. It is a huge blow that the working group hasn’t recommended 100% redress,’ he said.

‘The costs could rise to 03.2billion’