Donegal County Council is to write to Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien to demand the Government drop the proposed ‘sliding scale’ element of the MICA redress plan.
Standing orders for today’s council meeting were suspended following a proposal by Cathaoirleach Jack Murray.
Instead, all 37 councillors were allowed to speak on the issue.
All councillors expressed various opinions on the revised redress scheme announced by the Government last week.
Many said that there were many positive aspects to the proposed scheme.
However, almost all councillors disagreed with the suggestion of a sliding scale for the payment of redress to families hit by MICA in their homes.
A cap of €420,000 has been proposed for homes, up from €247,500 under a previous version of the scheme.
However, the sliding scale will see homeowners receive €145-per square foot for the first 1,000 sq ft of a home, €110 for the next 1,000 sq ft and then €100 sq ft after that.
This means that the majority of homeowners will still be left with substantial outlays to pay.
The vast majority of councillors paid tribute to those working within the MICA Action Group including Michael Doherty and Ann Owens.
However, some councillors did condemn personal attacks which had been launched against some members of the group.
A number of councillors called for unity and said all councillors should “pull on the county jersey” and seek the abolition of the sliding scale.
Cathaoirleach Jack Murray said he would arrange for a letter to be written to Minister O’Brien calling for the sliding scale to be removed and nothing pout 100% Redress put in its place.
