MICA homeowners from Derry & Donegal lobby Micheál Martin over exclusions and concerns

Families with MICA affected homes from Derry, Inishowen and beyond have sent a clear message to An Taoiseach Micheál Martin that no-one should be excluded from the current redress scheme.

A dignified protest was held as the Taoiseach attended an event on Artillery Street in Derry city centre on Friday evening organised by the John and Pat Hume Foundation.

Panellists from the event showed their support for the MICA affected families as they gathered by the Derry Walls prior to the event.

Under the current MICA Redress Scheme, people from Derry, the north and elsewhere with a holiday home in Donegal or other areas affected by MICA and pyrite are not eligible for any redress.

Over the course of the campaign for a revised redress scheme, many local people spoke of their heartbreak after spending their life savings on a holiday home in Donegal only for that dream to become a nightmare when they discovered it had MICA.

This included people from Derry and Belfast who had invested in a second home in the south and people from Donegal and Mayo who had moved abroad for work and had saved up for a home in their native county.

MICA Action Group PRO Michael Doherty, urging people to attend the rally last week said: “We have got holiday home owners that are completely left out of the scheme; holiday home owners that feel abandoned.

“We are being ignored but not to the level that you are. You are not even on the scheme, there is not a mention of you on the scheme, other than MICA Action Group mentioning that you need to be included at every opportunity. “

MICA affected homeowners from Inishowen and wider Donegal also registered their concerns over the current scheme stating that many, many questions remained unanswered.