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LIKE MANY PEOPLE, I was shocked and stunned when I heard that one of the Commissioners of the Mother and Baby Homes Commission would be speaking at an academic seminar yesterday.
The Oireachtas Committee on Children, which I chair, has been trying since January to ensure that one of the Commissioners appears before our committee and answers key questions about their report.
When the Chair of the Commission was invited to come before the committee in January this invite was declined. When the invitation was extended to other Commissioners, they too declined and refused to attend.
Survivors had made known their shock and distress at the apparent refusal of Commissioners to answer their questions. They engaged with the Commission in good faith because they wanted the truth to come out and for their voices to be heard. The report which followed has been controversial and caused huge distress for many survivors.
This has been compounded by the apparent refusal of Commissioners to answer questions before the Oireachtas committee.
Scrolling through Twitter on Tuesday, I was shocked to see an advert for one of the Commissioners, Professor Mary Daly, who was speaking at an event organised by Oxford University. The event was advertised as being for academics only and closed to the wider public.
Understandably, survivors were deeply hurt and confused by this development. They wanted to know why would Professor Daly refuse to come before the Oireachtas but break her silence now to fellow academics behind closed doors?
I believe survivors have been treated appallingly throughout the process of the Mother and Baby Homes Commission and I fear that this week’s developments have only compounded this existing and deep hurt. It has rubbed salt into an already very deep and raw wound.
According to media reports, at the seminar this week Professor Daly made a number of shocking and frankly outrageous revelations including that survivors’ testimonies were disregarded because the Commission’s terms of reference from the start did not permit them to be included in a meaningful way. This is scandalous. I fear these remarks could undermine the work of Professor Daly in this commission and undermine the report.
As Chair of the Oireachtas Children’s Committee, I have spoken to my fellow committee colleagues who share my shock and outrage at these developments.
We intend to write to all three Commissioners again to re-issue our invite for them to attend the Committee. They must answer questions that survivors have, if survivors are to have any confidence in the Commission and its report.
Survivors need to know: when did the Commission form the view that the terms of reference excluded meaningful inclusion of survivors testimonies? What steps did the Commissioners take to resolve this? Did they continue with the process, without telling survivors that this was their view? Why didn’t they raise these concerns in any of the interim reports?
For far too long, survivors have been left in the dark and treated as an afterthought. This must not be allowed to continue.
My thoughts today are with all the survivors who are affected by these developments. They came forward to speak at the Commission and bravely share their often harrowing experiences because of their determination that the truth comes out. They did so at often huge personal cost, given the distressing and deeply personal nature of their testimonies. They did so because they believed it was the right thing to do and they wanted the truth to be on show for all to see.
The way that survivors have been treated by the Commission for many years now is so shocking that it is almost impossible to put in to words. The Commissioners must do the right thing now and come before the Oireachtas Committee if they are to retain any credibility.
I am also calling on the government to step up and do much more to protect survivors’ needs. Minister Roderic O’Gorman is not a passive bystander in this – responsibility for these processes ultimately lies with him. I am calling on him to contact the Commissioners and back my call for them to come before the Oireachtas. He must make it clear in no uncertain terms that survivors deserve better than this.
The Commissioners must come before the Oireachtas Children’s Committee and answer these important questions.
Survivors deserve nothing less than the truth.
Kathleen Funchion TD is Sinn Féin spokesperson on Children and TD for Carlow-Kilkenny.
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Any statistics for self builds?
Very good question Kevin. I am looking to do a self build as contractors prices are still quite high. That said planners have now changed a lot of rules where by the different parts of the build have to be signed off by an engineer and architect and also that a lot of these direct labour builders are C2 registered. They are closing all the little loopholes that would have been advantageous to you as a self builder in saving money.
Look here for stats on housing starts
Select the middle filter “single dwellings”. now some of these will not be self builds ( some people do hire contractors ) but anecdotally most are.
Hi rebel. The Law Society issued best practice advice that Surveyors Engineers & Architects should not supervise Self Build projects. They confirmed that Self Build was not represented within the new building control act. The Law Society also confirmed they were not consulted regards the Amended regulations Unfortunately the Dept of Environment essentially banned Self Build through a badly thought out & poorly
BTW the English system embraces self build the Irish system does not.
Considering the Law Societies advice that it’s best practice not to supervise self build it would be professional suicide for an surveyor, architect or engineer to touch a self build. To do so is to play Russian roulette. If self build was possible the dept of environ would have produced the legal clarification by now.
Russian Roulette! I agree that cowboy builders should be stamped out but if a self build is being monitored by engineers, architects, and surveyors, how is it Russian Roulette when this is explicitly what they are employed to do from the outset? If this is the case building control in Britain are all playing Russian Roulette as they monitor contractual builds and self builds!
What’s your take on doing the self build yourself? That is if you are an engineer yourself and wish to build your own house. Could you sign off your own build?
If your a chartered engineer my understanding that you can both build & supervise. However you must satisfy your self that your a competent builder which I assume your not
Thanks for response I am not a chartered engineer but have years of supervising buildings from schools to railway stations so I think I should meet the competency part. As in I could supervise my own build and sign off on it. Although the chartered engineer part it something I neglected to get when I was involved in construction as a site engineer. I don’t think this legislation has been very well presented or thought out so far but I do welcome some changes needed due to the likes of priory hall. Will be interesting to see how it unfolds.
Rory the CIAT are on the way so all will resolve its self in time. I also fully believe the CIAT will call time on the new regs
I have found that architects don’t want anything to do with simple house extensions. I’ve contacted 3 since January, they came out to the house, had a look, went off saying they’ll be in touch with ideas etc & none have gotten back. Rang & emailed them and no reply. Job too small & maybe not enough money for them to make.
Hi pebbles. Well I can quote for that if interested :)
Well at this rate I’ll be getting the digger & doing it myself. Have u a website or contact details ?
Another misleading headline again. There is a spike in commencement notices to up to March as people sought to avoid new building control regulations.
See here http://bregsforum.wordpress.com/2014/06/22/cso-q1-2014-planning-for-dwellings-30/ and here http://bregsforum.wordpress.com/2014/06/19/commencement-notices-building-register-17th-june-2014
for a diametrically opposed account.
There are lies being told about the property market and the construction industry on this site .
Well there is a conflict of interest here obviously. The editors should be straining to make sure that they are overly sceptic when it comes to housing related articles in order to make sure that this perception does not taint them permanently.
Dennis in this case The Journal are acting as a mouthpiece for another website . For that other website it is good for business to distort the truth about the construction industry.
New building regs kicking in at end of March would have had a large effect here, anyone with permission already would have been lodging commencement notice before then to fall under previous regs.
Impossible to get planning permission on a site surrounding Dublin (self build) most of the land around South Dublin is zoned agricultural and protected to maintain view of Dublin mountains. Born and bred in the area, have a business 10 years in the area, want to move back to the area & closer to work and I’m being told to move into a housing estate (nothing wrong with housing estates) I am just being denied the right to build my own home. It’s a shambles! I am disgusted. Housing estates were built and more planning for more housing estates but self builds are denied. The planning laws are an ass. All because of reckless builders and planning authorities taking brown envelopes, now it’s gone so strict that Joe soap cannot build the home he/she wants, told to go buy a home off a builder.
Unfettered one-off housing is a scourge on the countryside – and equally housing estates are a scourge on our towns and villages. The current system is advantageous to the deep pockets of developers and individuals.
The wealthy individual can afford his McMansion in the countryside whilst the developer gets to creel the ordinary Joe who cannot afford anything more than a “production-line” house in an estate tacked on to the edge of a town or village.
This needs to stop. Proper zoning whereby councils must CPO a landbank for development. People should be able to purchase a site in the landbank for building their own house. Link the property tax to the amount of land used in the site and charge people a % based on the size as the purchase price.
This would bring down the price of development land and encourage people to build their own style house within the confines of a town/village. This would strengthen the local economy and the price of delivering services to houses would fall.
Great news! We are building 10% of our annual housing needs. Boom!
Great .. Ill get the tools out d van
All aspects of the build would be covered by an architects and builders public liability insurance policy . I couldn’t imagine the quagmire in the courts if something went wrong trying to apportion blame in a self build
Hi P. Your completely right. The certifier will be liable. One point of responsibility – the surveyor, architect or engineer. The law society only require the final cert of compliance & nothing also
But…. For that kind of responsibility comes at a price. If a certifier is responsible for every nail he/she will have to make dozens & dozens of visits for even a basic extension
This comes at a price. That’s why your hearing €9-12K prices to supervise a one off on the radio
It is a nightmare now in Ireland for anyone intending to build their own home for their family…I admire the UK Govt for their encouragement & support of self builders…they have it spot on…a building contractor is the one person that a self builder does not need to employ…we do the same thing!! #SI9toSEA
Is there a campaign I can join?
Contact these guys
http://www.iaosb.com/
Journal – why don’t you do so too and aim for more truthful reporting ?
I look forward to “The National Housing Construction Index” when published to compare the months April- Jun of 2011 / 12 13 + 14……
Or better yet Cliodhna – go straight to the CSO source here http://www.cso.ie/px/pxeirestat/Statire/SelectVarVal/Define.asp?MainTable=HSM12&TabStrip=Select&PLanguage=0&FF=1
You can expect the figures for new start to continue to fall for the rest of the year. The system is going to have to be revised as it is unworkable.
I was told recently that as many as 80% of commencement notices lodged with Galway CoCo under the new regs have been returned as ‘incomplete’ or not up to the standard of the new system. That and the fact that the LA are not up to speed on how the system is supposed to work. You can’t self-build………but people are being told that a self-builder CAN sign as a competent builder on his own behalf………….
There is also a cost issue. You can expect the new certification process to add as much as 8% to the cost of the build – a house I quoted in Galway two weeks, the cert process for that came in at €9000. Another, in the west of the city is around €14,500.
These figures belie the BS spouted by Phil Hogan who said it would add 1500-3000 to a house – he’s out by a minimum factor of 3. If you can find anyone to do it, that is………..
See question 115 here: http://oireachtasdebates.oireachtas.ie/debates%20authoring/debateswebpack.nsf/(indexlookupdail)/20140604~WRN?opendocument
And a note on self-build from the DoE, here: http://www.iaosb.com/2014-02-26%20Information%20Note%20on%20implications%20of%20SI%20No%209%20of%202014%20for%20Self%20Builders.pdf
Hi john. The consumer will decide the faith re one offs & extensions etc
The new regs plus the costly A3 rated house combined IMHO is too much too soon
yes, but when: what is an entire industry going to do in the meantime ?? Sit on our hands ?
There again, 75% of our work is in the UK atmo, so that’s a ++ for where I work.
“Question No. 389
Chun an Aire Comhshaoil, Pobail agus Rialtais Áitiúil:
To the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government:
To ask the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government when a table (details supplied) will be updated to include 2014 figures; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
- Charlie McConalogue.
For WRITTEN answer on Tuesday, 24th June, 2014.
Ref No: 27030/14
HSM12: Commencement Notices by Local Authority, Residential Units Commenced and Month
REPLY
Minister of State at the Department of Environment, Community and Local Government (Ms. J. O’Sullivan)
Relevant data relating to January and February 2014 are available from the CSO and from my Department’s website at
http://www.environ.ie/en/Publication…d,15293,en.xls
Relevant data returns have not been received yet for March, April, and May from a number of local authorities, and my Department is working closely with the Local Government Management Agency to ensure that data in respect of these months is provided to enable the up to date data to be published as soon as possible “.
This article is false and misleading as this written answer in the Dail demonstrates.
Anything to say Journal?
the Journal “splashes” with
“There were 3,524 residential construction projects started in the first four months of 2014 compared with 1,517 for the same period in 2013.”
but for a more reliable source stating
“Q1 2013 actually was an absolute historical low for planning permissions for any quarter since Q1 1975″
see here.
http://bregsforum.wordpress.com/2014/06/26/recovery-is-still-worse-than-the-1980s-crisis/
don’t read the Journal for stories about property or the construction industry unless you want spin and deception
have your say