Donegal TDs call for ‘foolish’ concrete products levy to be replaced

Donegal TDs have called for the Government to remove its “foolish” concrete products levy while calling for it to be replaced with a levy focused on banks and developers.
The Government expects to raise €80 million per year from the levy which was announced during the Budget. The levy is to be used to help fund the €2.57billion mica redress scheme.

The Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland has said the levy will add up to €4,000 to the cost of a regular semi-detached home.
The Mica Action Group, which represents more than 3,000 people affected by Mica in Donegal, has described the levy as a “blunt and cruel instrument” that will further financially punish homeowners.
A Sinn Féin motion calling for the “badly designed and unacceptable” Government proposal to be replaced with a levy “focused on the banks, profits of big developers and those who were responsible for the defects” was debated on Tuesday night. A vote on the motion was to take place on Wednesday evening.

Concrete levy will put ‘burden and pain’ on to ordinary homeowners – McDonald

Donegal Sinn Féin TD Pádraig MacLochlainn told the Dáil that banks have not assisted families dealing with the impact of defective concrete products by restructuring their loans or writing down debt. He said the failure of the Government to ask the banks to help affected families “is shocking”.
“I can speak with authority only about my own county, Donegal. The role of the banks there has been absolutely shameful. Right up to this moment, families who have needed help from their banks to navigate this crisis to rebuild their lives have not been helped, yet the Government is not proposing a levy on the banking sector to assist in this crisis.”
He said the Government had the opportunity “to demonstrate by its actions that it will have zero tolerance” for those responsible for the crisis.
“It is not just about this foolish concrete levy; it is also about showing people that what happened will never happen again and that the taxpayer will not be exposed. Moreover, it is about showing that families will not have their lives destroyed.”
Independent Donegal TD Thomas Pringle said the levy is “a further punishment for the victims of the mica scandal”.
“That is what is really shocking about this debate. It is a further piling on of wrongdoing on top of them. The victims of the mica scandal are still waiting for the redress scheme to be announced, yet the costs they face will be increased by the levy the Government is proposing in the budget. That is completely wrong, but it is typical of what the Government is about and the lazy way the Government does its work.”
He described the levy as “extremely lazy”. “The Government will introduce a levy, knowing it will be passed on to the costs of the people who have to pay for building work. They will pay the levy, and the Government can dress it up as a levy on the building industry when in fact it is actually a levy on the people who pay to get work done in the building industry.”
Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe accused Sinn Féin of wanting “a bigger levy on the one hand” but being opposed to “this levy, which is smaller than some of the figures I heard the Opposition party members mention”.
“I acknowledge it has a risk and that there are consequences here which will need teasing out and debate. How can Sinn Féin, however, want a bigger levy for which more is paid and not suggest that there are risks for that also?”

He said an independent assessment the Government has done shows there is a potential cost of between €800 and €1,600 for a typical three-bedroomed detached house or €750 to €1,100 for a six-floor apartment block with a basement.
“I acknowledge that there are still costs and risks but they are very different to the ones that we have heard in the public debate so far,” he said.