Why has the government compensation for mica affected properties been negatively received?

You should have posted this in the Donegal forum……I’m sure you’d get a great response!

While I feel sorry for the people affected, the sense of entitlement is bugging me - the idea that anything less than 100% is 'disgusting'. It's not actually the government's job to bail people out of a bad purchase. Now, as a taxpayer, and on the basis of shared risk, I'm happy for some of my taxes to go towards bailing these people out, as to have your house become completely worthless would just wipe you out financially. But it's not unreasonable to expect at least a small share of the burden to stay with them.

What I don't understand is how the builders themselves are getting away scot-free - it's them the anger should be directed at, and every last possible euro extracted from them!

I was thinking of changing my username to Blank Cheque McMansion, and doing just that.

I suppose firstly there isn’t a “Dublin” pyrite scheme. Secondly, the national pyrite scheme has only cost a relatively modest €150 million where the Donegal McMansion Preservation scheme costs a couple of billions, with the campaign looking for even more. The average cost of fixing pyrite houses is €65,000, which makes some kind of financial sense when the alternative is rehousing a family. The Donegal campaigners, on the other hand, think it makes perfect sense for someone else to give them €400,000 to rebuild a house worth half that.

Lots more could be said, but that’s enough for one post.

Donegal, using its "forgotten County" mantra to bleed the State they castigate at last.

Basically it hasn't been received well because it still leaves most homeowners having to come up with a sum of money they can't afford.

The average amount they will have to put in stands at 55-65k. Which makes it no better than the old scheme, which the government said they were going to fix.

But the government have put a great spin on it, saying it is a 100% redress scheme when it so obviously isn't, and also getting the 420k cap figure a lot of media attention, which has fooled the public in general into thinking we are all getting handed 420k each to fix our homes.

But I'll not post again in this thread as it's obvious from some of the comments already that there isn't much actual knowledge of what the situation involves, who is at fault, why homeowners are so annoyed etc. Some folk need to go off and educate themselves on what actually happened here, as they are posting questions and statements that have been talked over to death already and which would answer their points.

Let's just say that the situation on the ground up here is very serious. But when you are miles away sitting in your home which isn't in danger of falling down on your family in the next big storm, it's easy to take pot shots. The fact that the latest government schemes actually involves money to tackle the mental health issue it's causing tells you a lot about how it's affecting families.

But sure have your digs at your neighbours expense.

It’s worth bearing in mind that land in Donegal and the north west Is extremely cheap and building costs are (were?) much lower than the rest of the country. A lot of people are happy to dig their own wells and deal with their own sewage so the land doesn’t even need to be near a town or on a main road, reducing the price further.

You could build a mansion there for a fraction of the cost of anywhere else in the country and many, many people did. It’s no indication of their wealth or anything else.

FWIW I think the micra protestors did a great job getting national attention to their problem and seemed to focus a lot of politicians minds but they’re at risk of losing all that now. There could be lots of good reasons why more than the price of an average house in Dublin isn’t enough to fix/rebuild a house in Donegal but they’re not being communicated and people will lose interest or support very quickly.

Also the ‘Dublin pyrite’ thing needs to stop. I know it’s second nature in lots of parts of Ireland to feel second fiddle to Dublin but it comes across as childish and petulant when used publicly.

Of course I would! If I needed my house rebuilt I’d be delighted for somebody else to be footing the bill!

In all seriousness, I’m not saying there shouldn’t be any assistance. Of course people should not be left in unsafe houses that are crumbling around them. But when you’re spending other people’s money, your expectations should be different than when you’re spending your own money. You don’t order the most expensive thing in the restaurant when somebody else is paying. What is galling to me in this situation is that the homes that we, the taxpayers, are funding are much bigger and more expensive than the homes that many of us can afford for ourselves. That doesn’t seem right.

Maybe because someone introduced that sliding scale at the 11th hour which meant the avg amount the homeowner would have to find would be 65k, yet they still claim it's a 100% scheme which it mathematically can't be.

I honestly believe this was a deliberate attempt to turn the public against those affected, and it's working. The days after the latest report was published, every media report mentioned 100% and 420k cap, despite neither being achieved.

The public opinion shifted when it became apparent the homeowners were demanding 100% redress.

They have always been asking for 100%.

And they had plenty of support nationwide, some may have dropped off. Who knows?

I wouldn't judge Boards as representative of the country as a whole.