Mica defective block campaigners have rejected the latest €2.7billion Government redress plan, saying it is not “100% redress” which is what they campaigned for.
By not granting 100% redress of the complete rebuild cost for all homes, the campaigners say they will still be left tens of thousands of euro in debt.
The campaigners, who have seen their homes crumble due to the dodgy blocks their homes were built with, say they will continue their campaign.
Read More: Distraught mum says revised mica scheme could lead to her family facing costs of €100,000
The Government agreed the new plan at a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday morning.
The budget for the redress scheme has gone up a whopping half a billion euro again from €2.2billion to €2.7billion.
And this may not be the final figure as many believe the true cost will end up being closer to €3billion when the dust settles.
It will see grants worth up to 100% of a home’s value up to a maximum of €420,000, plus another €25,000 to compensate for storage and alternative living arrangements during repairs.
Two more countries have also been added to the scheme, with another 1,300 homes affected by Mica in Limerick and Clare now eligible for compensation too.
However, Mica campaigners are not satisfied as they wanted a higher rebuild value of €460,000 applied because the lower limit will leave them “tens of thousands” of euro in debt.
And they say that the figures are out of date because they were calculated months ago before soaring construction costs kicked in.
Michael Doherty of Donegal Mica Action said: “there’s inflation that is hitting all of us and none of that seems to have been taken into account is one of the issues.
“The cap for instance of €420,000, that needs to be €460,000 and remember very few people, maybe 18% will get this 420k.
“Everyone else is covered by a cap that’s to do with the square footage.
He added on RTE’s Six One News: “we were hoping to down tools today, we were hoping to say the Government has done the right thing this time around.
“We knew it was going to be difficult, but at least the Government would have given us a means to an end, but that’s not what we’ve seen today.
“The campaign continues, the focus of the campaign will be, if they don’t make this right, then we need to find another government that will.”
Martina Hegarty of the North Mayo Mica Action group said: “it’s not 100% redress and unfortunately there is a spin there in relation to that, but every single homeowner in there is going to be out tens of thousands (of euro) out.”
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