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A POLITICAL PARTY which is campaigning for 100% redress for homeowners affected by defective building materials is running six candidates in tomorrow’s local elections in Donegal.
The 100% Redress Party, which was formed last year, said it wants to secure “a genuine 100% redress scheme for all those affected by defective concrete products”.
The mica scandal first made headlines in 2021 when homeowners saw concrete blocks used to build their homes and were beginning to crumble.
The government introduced a scheme in November 2021 to support affected homeowners to remediate their dwelling and this scheme was enhanced last summer.
The Enhanced Defective Blocks Scheme allows affected homeowners in counties Clare, Donegal, Limerick, and Mayo to apply for a maximum grant of €420,000. Sligo is also set to be added to the scheme.
The party is calling for all residential, commercial and agricultural properties to be included in the scheme, along with rental properties and buildings owned by community-based organisations.
It is also calling for the grant rate to reflect the cost of rebuilding in accordance with modern building regulations, and for there to be no upper limit on the total amount of the grant for homeowners.
One of the party’s six candidates, Ali Farren, will run in the Carndonagh electoral area. Speaking to The Journal, the tourism business owner said the party was formed because the candidates felt “there was nobody being a real, true voice for us”.
“We believe in the democratic way. If we’re successful, we will have a voice at a council table, and we will consider running candidates – provided we get a good enough vote – for the Dáil elections,” he said.
The party’s chairman Tomas Devine is a small business owner who has lived in Letterkenny for the last 20 years. He will run for a seat in the electoral area.
Joy Beard, who co-founded the party, will stand in the Buncrana electoral area. Beard moved to Limavady in 2007 and has been actively campaigning on the defective concrete issue for a number of years.
Éamonn Jackson, the former chair of the Mica Action Group, will contest the Milford local electoral area, while healthcare worker Charles Ward will run for a seat in the Lifford-Stranorlar area.
Last month, the party announced that it was running a sixth candidate. Denis McGee, who is self-employed, will stand in the Glenties area.
Farren told The Journal that all of the candidates, including him, live in homes that are affected by defective concrete blocks.
Farren said that every part of the redress scheme is “designed to be difficult”.
“It’s not a scheme that everybody can get on. You need a lot of money upfront to even get started on the scheme. Even to move out of your house, people have to find other accommodation, and there is no accommodation in this area at the moment.”
He also pointed to the fact that it is not just private homes that have been affected by defective blocks.
“There’s farmers with affected farm sheds, lots of businesses around have invested money in property, whether it be a bed and breakfast, a shop or a garage.”
A map with a list of all of the local election candidates who are running in Donegal can be found here.
The local and European elections will take place this Friday, 7 June.
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Great to see SF and Mary Lou are finished and she is getting the bullet in the coming weeks.
@Trump24: You’re in the wrong country, that’s the USA.
@Trump24: Like when you said 2 weeks ago they wouldnt get near FFG either?
Jesus, enough with FG’s obsession with sinn fein. I don’t like them myself & have never voted for them but enough is enough.
@Matt D: Someone senior in FG needs to take this lad aside & explain that there is a time to bite your tongue, a time to listen, a time to show humility & a time to speak honestly. I am no fan of SF, but surely, he could have let this go by, counting isn’t even completed ! His constant need for making news feeds & media is actually a turn off for people & he needs a little bit of reflection as his own cock ups have cost his colleagues & his party, many seats. Who is advising this lad, I know he has surrounded himself with people from Irish MSM, but Harris & his party & actually SF as well, might be better off getting ordinary people in to advise them, as they can’t seem to connect with ordinary people or how to deliver a message. Get some real life advisors Simon.
Just saying Sinn Fein makes him and Micheal Martin stiff.
It would be satisfying to see FG suffer, given their lies during the recession at a point when the people of Ireland were at their most vulnerable, and persistence with austerity taxes when the country is awash with excess tax take year after year.
Hopefully Gerry parks beside Simon every day in the Dail and smiles at him going in. Will be hilarious!
Looks like the “FFG” line has been overplayed. In so far as that entity exists, it seems on course to be by far the largest party.
@Terry McClatchey: Insofar as it exists, it will be the largest party? A politician wouldn’t put it better
They Don’t Get It…Reign In RTE and the Energy Companies. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.
That’s right Harris keep snipping….
Wonder will Martin be dumb enough to say for a second time after an election he wont jump into bed with their partners for life FG or does FF and its leadership actually have the cop on to admit they are the same two cheeks and one wont survive without the other any more
Harris can spin this anyway he wants the knives will still be out for his tea boy backside……his gaff a week ago almost backfired badly, even leaky leo wouldnt have done that
@Patrick Newell: he should get no votes,
Haven’t seen a Fianna Gael surge either and all those massive problems will still be there if independents and parties are willing to sell their souls
Great to see all the Fianna Fail men getting elected, the country could do with real men like Fianna Fail men
@Fintan Pox: What country? FF has and continues to destroy Ireland
@Fintan Pox: your surname is apt
@Fintan Pox: good man the extra strength glue really taking ya to another level of deluded
@Mayo seem to be the football equivalent of Waterfo:
We’ve never had it so good.
@Dave G Doe: how does a party that lost the election become a winner in literally anyone’s eyes ? How? They came third.
During the American election we were saying if Trump was the best that they had to offer they are mad. Now the Irish people have voted Harris AGAIN
This gimp scraped through on the 15th count in 2020. Can anybody who voted him please tell me what he has done in 4 years to deserve this huge vote?. It shows ,once again, how affluent voters truly do not give a damn about the rest of people and the bigger issues this clown and his party have caused. Homelessness,illegal immigration, hospital lists and young adults still living at home due to FFG policies prohibiting them ever buying a house are things that don’ bother his supporters. How stupid people really are.
Ya fine gael and fianna fails vote are 50% down in last 10 years, they had to join up and when the rest of the idiots die off they’ll have a lot less votes thank god. Wel done Ireland ye are clueless
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