Mica Redress

Two labourers working 8hr days would have an average house stripped in a week. Another 3 days if the slates are to be salvaged.

Now I know labour is expensive, but it's not €25k/week expensive.

I work in the industry and I do know what's involved in a strip out.

It doesn't take €50k to demolish and strip a site the size of a block built house unless it's contaminated with hazardous waste, or several storeys high. A bungalow is cheapest of all as limited scaffold is required.

The householder can even do a lot of it as the work isn't particularly skilled.

They weren't pursued. A letter from their solicitor about lack of insurance cover was issued.

No ones pursued them for money through the High Court. No one.

Personally I'm still confused why someone would buy a twenty year old house in the last few years with cracks over the doors and windows amongst other area in the house for absolute rock bottom prices. It's absolutely alarm bells central. Even with flashing red lights.

It could be argued they saw the price and said sure feck it.

If the average householder genuinely believes that it will cost 50k to strip their house, then there is indeed a killing to be made here.

But do they really think that, or is it just a line for the campaign because it doesn't stand up to any simple form of interrogation.

Here is a quote from October. 40k in this instance. There are other users dotted about that have shared their quotes, but I don't use Facebook often and cannot find them again now.

That quote includes groundworks and civils, not just demolition.

In any case, the mica group have a motivation to publicise the worst case examples, not typical or best case. So I'd take everything they say with a large helping of salt.

Just on the above, first you said the block supplier was taken to court and then a few posts later you say they weren't. Which is it? This is one of the things that's incredible frustrating about the campaign and it's hard to know if it's deliberate or not - extremely unclarity about what they've tried before looking to the state for a bailout.

Right, I had to sign up to donegalLive for this, I hope you appreciate that :)

Mica-affected Inishowen families who initiated legal cases against Cassidy Brothers Concrete Products Limited in 2013 over defective blocks were told in 2016 the company did not have insurance cover in respect of their claims.

Donegal Live has seen a copy of one such letter from the firm of solicitors representing Cassidy Brothers.

Dated May 31, 2016, the letter said: “We refer to your correspondence of May 23 [2016] and confirm our instructions that our clients do not have insurance cover in respect of the aforementioned claims"

This information was communicated to those taking legal cases from their own solicitors in a letter dated June 8, 2016, which said: “We refer to your recent meeting with regard to the above matter. Please find enclosed copy letter received … confirming there is no insurance cover.

“The correspondence is somewhat bland and we find it difficult to understand how a company of this type is not insured for manufacturing a defective product.

"On the basis of the foregoing and as discussed, we do intend to bring one of these cases. It would be helpful to meet with you to establish which case we should bring and try and arrange the finance of the same.

“As this is effectively a test case, it would be essential that we prove it to the highest standard, which would involve employing the appropriate expert witnesses, barristers, etc. The costs of the case is not our primary concern, but it is something which we must look at reasonably.”

Oliver Lafferty from Carndonagh was one of the people who pursued a legal case against Cassidy’s.

Speaking to Donegal Live, Mr Lafferty said: “We heard about a neighbour who was asked by the company to sign a non-disclosure agreement with the company, in return for getting the outer leaf of their house repaired.

“They refused and decided to take a legal case, so when we noticed mica in our home, we decided to go the legal route too. That was in 2011.

“We went to our architect and we got an engineer. They took samples from our house, and, although they didn't say it was mica, it stood out in the report that was what the problem was and whenever we found out what mica was, we could see that was the problem.

“We were led to believe we could not find out whether or not Cassidy's had insurance until our case was registered with the High Court. We registered in 2013 and in 2016 we were told, for sure, there was no insurance.

“I felt as if we were led up the garden path,” he said.

“At that time the whole thought of a redress scheme was on the cards and I believe our case was dragged out till that point, so when we felt there was no insurance in place, there was something to fall back on, so there was less of a backlash. We were very vulnerable,” he said.

Three families took their cases forward, one bungalow and two two-storey houses, one with dash and one without. They had their houses surveyed and were given the cost it would be to replace.

Mr Lafferty did not withdraw his legal case against Cassidy's but believes it is now outside the statute of limitations.

“At the time I would have said, 'How the hell are Cassidy's doing council work without insurance. I don't know,” he said.

Raising the issue of Cassidy Brothers having no insurance at Monday’s meeting of Donegal County Council, Cllr Frank McBrearty (Independent) said the council must now answer the question, “why is it still buying product from Cassidy's?”

That's the thing though, the government would not have been at "fault" in the Leinster case either, however they were happy to give full coverage to meet the needs in Leinster.

If I go out and have my lunch 100% paid for me by work, do you really think it's equivalent for the next person to demand that their 5 course meal be paid for too? After all they set the precedent.

The equivalence the protesters are trying to draw with the pyrite scheme is a total nonsense since the scale is completely hugely, different. The average compensation per pyrite property was in the order of €70k. It will be a multiple of that for mica.

Get prepared for more complaints, everyone will want a rebuild.

Who'll be happy with an outer leaf if neighbour gets a full rebuild

How big is your house though?

How much is the State handing over to you?

Will you be getting a brand new kitchen, tiles, etc

This is relevant information to make your argument about being 13k short for every other taxpayer, and maybe it's not such a bad thing as everyone else has to eventually fork out for kitchen replacements, etc.

Also, I believe the Sq/ft cost will be adjusted over time to reflect that costs will rise.