Committee on Public Petitions debate -
Thursday, 7 Jul 2022

Consideration of Public Petitions Received

Chairman

We have two petitions for consideration today. Petition No. 36 of 2021, "Reform of Insurance for Thatched Heritage Buildings" is under the name of Ms Katie McNelis. This petition relates to the difficulties people have in getting insurance for residential and commercial thatched properties. The secretariat corresponded with the Central Bank of Ireland on behalf of the petitioner in October 2021. The Central Bank responded in March 2022 and its response was forwarded to Ms McNelis. A copy of the petition and the correspondence was also forwarded to the Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman for comment and that office responded in April. This response was forwarded to the petitioner. The secretariat has been in contact with the petitioner since and in June, Ms McNelis sent in a copy of the letter from the thatched property insurance action group, TPIAG, to the Minister of State at the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage with responsibility for heritage and electoral reform, Deputy Noonan, to the secretariat.

The committee recommends that the petition and all associated correspondence including a copy of the letter from the TPIAG be sent for comment to the Minister of State at the Department of Finance with responsibility for financial services, credit unions and insurance, Deputy Fleming; to the Minister of State at the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage with responsibility for heritage and electoral reform, Deputy Noonan, and to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach, and that the petition be brought before the committee again in the autumn if time allows. Do members have any views?

Deputy Pat Buckley

I can see how difficult it is. We talked about tourism in the first half of this meeting and about promoting it. We have thatched houses throughout the country for which owners cannot get insurance plus the fact a house cannot be hold without insurance. I would like that to be revisited when the correspondence is returned next year.

Chairman

I agree with the Deputy. It needs to be looked at fairly quickly because we are all about heritage and everyone wants to see it. We all love to see thatched cottages throughout the country. We have ten in a small village setting in Holycross near my home in County Tipperary. It would be an awful pity to lose them. We run a massive risk of people taking the thatch off and losing that if something is not done on the insurance end of it. For this reason people cannot sell on a house, as the Deputy said. People will not buy a house if they cannot get insurance for it.

Senator Jerry Buttimer

I am happy to go along with the consensus and whatever next steps are being taken will have my support.

Chairman

Petition No. 2 of 2022, "Homelessness is Cancer - blocked-up houses are not the answer" is under the name of Mr. Eamon Broughan. This petition was submitted on 28 January 2022 and relates to a housing estate in Kildare where houses were bought by the county council in 2007 and have been blocked up since. Starting in February 2022 the secretariat contacted Kildare County Council on behalf of the petitioner several times and did not receive a response to the petition. During this time, the petitioner also contacted the committee secretariat seeking updates and expressing his frustrations with the secretariat. On 1 July 2022, Kildare County Council responded. The committee recommends that the correspondence from Kildare County Council be forwarded to Mr. Broughan for comment and the petition and all the related correspondence be sent for comment to the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, and to the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O’Brien. Do members have any views?

Before I let members speak, in regard to a petitioner contacting the committee secretariat and expressing his frustrations, I want to refute that. The committee here and its secretariat worked tirelessly trying to get answers from Kildare County Council and any delay was on its part, not on the part of the secretariat or the clerk. I wish to express my satisfaction that they have done all they could since the petition came in and they contacted Kildare County Council. I wish to make members aware that the delay was on the other side, not on the part of the secretariat or the clerk.

Senator Jerry Buttimer

What does the Chairman propose that we do?

Deputy Pat Buckley

That is going to Kildare County Council, back to the petitioner and the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage.

Senator Jerry Buttimer

That is fair enough.

Chairman

The committee recommends that the correspondence from Kildare County Council be sent to Mr. Broughan for comment, that the petition itself and all related correspondence be sent for comment to the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, and the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O’Brien. Those are the recommendations. Has Senator Buttimer seen the documentation? There are a great many things to be answered. This estate was bought by the council in 2007. Difficulties surrounded the whole thing from the word go when it bought it. How it ever got the go-ahead for planning in the first place I do not know, for example five houses have been demolished so far. There is talk of demolishing another 15 units in the middle of the estate in order to get access to another field that the council owns. It is crazy that the original scheme passed planning and was given the go-ahead only to discover thereafter that there were so many problems subsequently. We have a serious housing problem in the country, and to see a council buying up a scheme and then starting to demolish houses does not look good. Someone needs to answer for the decisions that were made.

We will send correspondence to Mr. Broughan and the Department and see what they come back with.

Deputy Pat Buckley

We should revisit it.

Chairman

We should certainly revisit it after the recess.

Deputy Pat Buckley

I am happy with that.

Chairman

That concludes our consideration of public petitions this afternoon. I would like to invite members of the public to submit petitions via our online portal, which is available at petitions.oireachtas.ie. A petition may be addressed to the Houses of the Oireachtas on a matter of general public concern or interest or an issue of public policy. Today's submissions and petitions are perfect examples of local issues being brought to a national platform. It was very beneficial to have both petitioners in today.