Sinn Féin spokesperson on Housing Eoin Ó Broin TD has welcomed the creation of a Department of Housing working group to examine solutions for homeowners impacted by latent defects due to bad building during the Celtic Tiger.

Teachta Ó Broin said: “It is essential that this group starts work as quickly as possible and that a representative for homeowners with latent defects is on this working group.

“The group should come back with a series of recommendations for the Minister for Housing and the Housing Committee by the first quarter of 2021.

“However, the Minister must seek initial funding in the upcoming Budget 2021 so that a redress scheme can be introduced in early 2021.

“Sinn Féin will engage constructively with the group and will make a detailed submission based on the recommendations of the Safe as Houses report, which I authored.“The government and the construction industry must contribute to a latent defects redress fund to assist homeowners who bought their homes in good faith and through no fault of their own are uncovering latent defects in their homes.

“Sinn Féin makes provision for an initial fund in our upcoming alternative budget.

“Our €15m scheme would be funded via an industry levy matched by government to help homeowners pay for remedial works.

“By 2020 any such fund should stand at €30m annually, if not more. The fund would be supported by a non-judicial resolution process which in the first instance would seek to have the developer responsible cover the costs of remediation.

“The redress scheme should also be accompanied by a programme of fire risk assessments to assess those boom time developments deemed potentially at risk of containing latent defects.”