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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Irish government are evil bastards-your worst nightmare. MICA scandal.

65 replies

Sofaking355 · 09/10/2021 11:40

www.theguardian.com/world/2021/oct/07/blocks-like-weetabix-how-mica-scandal-upended-lives-in-ireland

www.euronews.com/2021/10/08/ireland-s-mica-scandal-owners-of-crumbling-homes-march-in-dublin-seeking-full-compensation

Basically across Donegal in Ireland, over 20000 people have their houses falling down due to deflective blocks. The people have been marching in Dulin looking for 100 percent redress but the govt will only pay out 90 percent and people can't afford the 10 percent. Isn't it your worst nightmare?

OP posts:
pastabest · 09/10/2021 11:56

At least some financial help is being proposed unlike the cladding scandal.

Original poster
Sofaking355 · 09/10/2021 12:01

At least some financial help is being proposed unlike the cladding scandal

the uk govt give 5 billion and cladding doesn't mAke your house fall down.

OP posts:
Emilizz34 · 09/10/2021 13:33

Why are the government and ultimately the taxpayers financing this ?
Are the construction companies and block manufacturers not required to compensate home owners or have they gone out of business etc ?

AnnieJ1985 · 09/10/2021 13:38

I'm from Donegal, living in Dublin. So so many of my friends, neighbours and people I know impacted by this. It is an absolute disaster. Someone will potentially be badly injured or killed from a falling chimney the way things are crumbling

Original poster
Sofaking355 · 09/10/2021 14:11

Why are the government and ultimately the taxpayers financing this ?
Are the construction companies and block manufacturers not required to compensate home owners or have they gone out of business etc

don't think they can afford it, the damage is looking to exceed 3.6 billion euro.

OP posts:
Original poster
Sofaking355 · 09/10/2021 14:12

I'm from Donegal, living in Dublin. So so many of my friends, neighbours and people I know impacted by this. It is an absolute disaster. Someone will potentially be badly injured or killed from a falling chimney the way things are crumbling

because it's not affecting Dublin it's not seen as a priority.

OP posts:
AnnieJ1985 · 09/10/2021 15:56

Exactly. It is the same old story @Sofaking355 - kick it down the road for someone else to deal with

TheKeatingFive · 09/10/2021 16:02

Are the construction companies and block manufacturers not required to compensate home owners or have they gone out of business etc ?

The construction companies all folded and then reformed under other names, rendering themselves untouchable.

Construction in Ireland is like the Wild West. They've colluded with government to make sure they're impossible to regulate.

It's appalling that it's been allowed to happen.

3luckystars · 09/10/2021 16:04

It’s awful. Imagine paying a mortgage on a property that is unsafe to live in and you can’t sell either.

Quire · 09/10/2021 16:07

I completely agree with @TheKeatingFive’s post, but as someone who’d lived longterm in the UK until recently, I would not characterise the current Irish government, even at its worst, as anywhere near the level of venality, corruption, incompetence and general clusterfuckishness as the current goons in Westminster. Boris Johnson makes Micheál Martin look like Socrates in comparison.

Loveshelly · 09/10/2021 18:30

Isn’t there personal liability even in companies? Surely you can’t just fold a company and there be no redress.
Otherwise people would go round doing horrendous things and then closing up shop?

TheKeatingFive · 09/10/2021 18:36

Surely you can’t just fold a company and there be no redress.

You'd think.

But welcome to the construction sector in Ireland.

ROI has a lot of problems with insurance too.

Original poster
Sofaking355 · 09/10/2021 19:27

This is a national humanitarian crisis in Ireland and it seems to be a nationwide problem as other places are getting hit too.

OP posts:
Original poster
Sofaking355 · 09/10/2021 19:29
OP posts:
NeverDropYourMooncup · 09/10/2021 19:30

@Sofaking355

At least some financial help is being proposed unlike the cladding scandal

the uk govt give 5 billion and cladding doesn't mAke your house fall down.

Well, no, it doesn't make a house fall down. It turns your high rise block of flats into something resembling a Kelly Kettle only with walls of flame instead of steam travelling all the up to the top with you all stuck inside instead.

Shit building blocks are still shit. But don't dismiss the way people died and how those stuck in similar places are still stuck in them.

Yawnattack · 09/10/2021 20:09

The complete lack of responsibility of the people who bought these houses is something I cannot understand. It seems they never bothered to do a survey on the buildings they bought, refuse to take any legal action against the companies who supplied the blocks or build the houses several of which are still in business and simply expect the Irish taxpayer to completely cover all their costs. I for one am not happy to pay even 90% of these costs through my taxes. This money would be better spent addressing the serious housing shortage in Ireland.

3luckystars · 09/10/2021 20:22

But some of them would have bought houses off the plans, there was no way to do a survey before they were even built.

3luckystars · 09/10/2021 20:23

I could be totally wrong about that though and apologies abut that, I don’t know very much about it really, I’m sorry.

TheKeatingFive · 09/10/2021 20:28

The complete lack of responsibility of the people who bought these houses is something I cannot understand

Nice bit of victim blaming there. Lovely.

Perhaps this will give you a clearer picture of what people are facing. They've tried to sue. Repeatedly. But the companies still in operation don't have insurance to claim off.

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.rte.ie/amp/1228345/

3luckystars · 10/10/2021 14:34

It must be so stressful for them.

Porcupineintherough · 10/10/2021 14:40

@TheKeatingFive no indurance to clsim off? How is that even legal? I can see why both the affected homeowners and the tax payer are fucked off tbh.

Porcupineintherough · 10/10/2021 14:41

The general tax payer that is. Im sure the home owners are tax payers too.

IComeInPeace · 10/10/2021 14:43

Wow, is this like pyrite?

pelosi · 10/10/2021 14:44

@Yawnattack

The complete lack of responsibility of the people who bought these houses is something I cannot understand. It seems they never bothered to do a survey on the buildings they bought, refuse to take any legal action against the companies who supplied the blocks or build the houses several of which are still in business and simply expect the Irish taxpayer to completely cover all their costs. I for one am not happy to pay even 90% of these costs through my taxes. This money would be better spent addressing the serious housing shortage in Ireland.
Is this conjecture or do you have proof?
IComeInPeace · 10/10/2021 14:51

The survey i had done on my house was very basic. It was what was required. Who pays extra for an unnecessarily intense survey above and beyond what's required when broke and stretched and buying a house.

I nearly bought a flat that had pyrite apparently. I pulled out. Somebody else bought it after me but it was a new build. Im sure they wouldnt have got a mortgage if the pyrite had been spotted. I feel sorry for these people