The 100% Redress Party has welcomed the opportunity to stress the urgency of the defective concrete block crisis with the Minister for Housing on his first official visit to Donegal.
The party said that Minister James Browne made no immediate commitments during his meetings in Lifford yesterday, but carried out a listening exercise to hear from TDs, councillors, affected homeowners and the council executive.
100% Redress Party TD Charles Ward said the Minister’s visit to Donegal has given people hope.
Welcoming the Minister’s commitment to engage on issues, Deputy Ward said: “We have given him everything we know is not working on this scheme. Now he has to go away and work on that and come back to us, which he said he would. Time will tell.”
Councillor Ali Farren said: “We are delighted that the Minister came. We are there to work with him, we have been waiting on a Minister since we were elected, and we have to be positive about that.”
Cllr Farren said that every councillor of the Defective Concrete Blocks Committee ‘had on the Donegal jersey’ yesterday.
“Every councillor positively highlighted issues regarding the scheme and he (the Minister) was writing and listening,” said Cllr Farrren.
“He did not make any commitments to a timescale, or on getting legislation through the Dáil before the summer recess. But we welcome the fact that he came in his first 12 weeks on the job.
“He and his team definitely went away a lot wiser. They took a lot of notes, they listened to a lot of people. If we are going to move forward on this scheme and the amount of changes we need, he knows about them now. Whether he delivers, we just have to wait and see.”
The Minister’s other engagements in Donegal included meeting with Donegal County Council staff, the Fianna Fail party, residents of Elm Park, the Mica Action Group and downgraded homeowners. It’s understood that he visited a number of homes impacted by defective concrete.
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