General Election: Niall Blaney hits out at 'negative spin' from redress campaigners

Senator Niall Blaney has claimed, in a robust defence of outgoing Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue, that there is misinformation surrounding the government’s Defective Concrete Blocks Grant Scheme.

Blaney was director of elections for Fianna Fáil candidates McConalogue, Pat ‘The Cope’ Gallagher and Claudia Kennedy for this general election.

With McConalogue in a battle to retain his seat as the count continues at the Aura Leisure Centre in Letterkenny, Blaney hit out at some prominent campaigners for 100% redress for affected homeowners.

“To watch Paddy Diver with his hammer for the last few days, hitting walls with a hammer and telling people to get rid of Charlie McConalogue. . .” he told Donegal Live.

“Homeowners have half-a-million euro to fix their houses now. People like him has his house started, but he is telling other people that there isn’t enough money to build their house, but he can build his, Michael Doherty similarly ... building mansions of houses, one of them is over 3,000 square foot.

"It is very hard to understand how these guys can actually go around and cause all of this negative spin, but yet at the same time tell everyone else that you can’t start your house because they don’t have the money and they keep this bandwagon going. 

“The delivery of getting the scheme to where it is absolutely wouldn’t happen without Charlie McConalogue. Hundreds and hundreds of hours, not just with officials, but with the Mica Action Group as well.

"I sat in 2020 at a meeting with Michael Doherty, Micheal Martin and other officials in the Clanree Hotel, and the people telling if we got it close to 90% they would back it. 

“This is a 100% scheme, up to half-a-million euro now. You’ll still build some house today for half-a-million euro. I know inflation being added contractors is an issue, but you’ll still build some house for that amount of money.”

Thousands of homes across Donegal and particularly on the Inishowen peninsula are blighted by defective concrete blocks with many houses having to be demolished. In September, it was announced that the maximum grant available under the Defective Concrete Blocks Scheme was to be increased by 10% from €420,000 to €462,000.

With around 7,000 homes said to be affected, only an estimated 200 are under reconstruction with 44 having been completed. 

“Anyone I have spoken to who says they haven’t enough money (to get onto the scheme), they haven’t even gone to get a price,” Blaney said. “The first thing you need is to get an engineer or an architect to do a detailed list of what’s needed for your house. To say that I’m 100,00 short without getting a list of materials, an itemised list, that’s what’s wrong in a lot of cases. 

“There is far too much misinformation. The amount of people I met at the doors that the scheme costs us too much. It was: 'Have you applied yet?' 'No, we wouldn’t have €6,000 to start the scheme'.

"You explain that you don’t need the €6,000, that you only need 10% of that. A lot of people, 89% of people applying for the scheme at the older rates, are getting 100% of a grant. This is a really strong scheme. I feel sorry for those people who built big houses and have big mortgages.

“We are dealing with a specific issue at the moment and are trying to find a solution for that. It won’t be short-term, but there will be a solution for those people in the long-term. We have had so many hurdles. Every time these issues have come along, we have dealt with them and we have got over the hurdles. Charlie is a vital cog in this.

“There has been an awful lot of heat on social media in the last few days. On the back of that, we had a fear of what was going on. Considering all of that, Charlie’s vote held up reasonably well in Inishowen. It would be massive for us to get two TDs here to go forward for the formation of the next government.”

Read next: General Election: 'Massive disappointment' for Fine Gael in Donegal constituency

McConalogue took 8,019 first preference votes, including around 4,000 in the Inishowen area.

Gallagher is expected to take the third seat at some point this afternoon. McConalogue seems in a battle for one of the remaining seats, but Blaney insists the Inishowen-based representative has a cushion against rivals Thomas Pringle (Independent) and Charles Ward (100% Redress).

“It’s vital that Donegal keeps its minister,” he said. 

“Take a snapshot of what Charlie has delivered: €700million given to the A5, driven by Charlie McConalogue, which has put that project in a position where it could start; the TEN-T is going to planning and could be at construction in two years’ time, which is massive for Donegal.

"That puts Donegal the forgotten county, back on the map again. Getting university status for Letterkenny was no mean feat and wouldn’t have happened without a Minister. Charlie is over so much detail in these things, getting officials aligned and doing the spadework to make sure these projects happen.

“There has been a 25% increase in funding and 20% staffing increase in Letterkenny hospital.  We know there is a massive problem with bed shortage, but the delivery of the new short-stay ward will make a massive impact. The delivery of primary care centres across Donegal, too. We are starting to get our fair share and the significance of that can’t be lost. 

“To lose our Minister, it would be like cutting off your nose to spite your face.