Campaigner moves his family out of condemned mica home into caravan
MICA campaigner Paddy Diver and his family have moved into a caravan after their home was condemned.
And Mr Diver has said the Government is lucky there hasn’t been a tragedy due to the defective blocks controversy. The campaigner, his wife Amanda, and their children Savannah, 12, Reece, 16 and Mark, 25, are now living in a caravan on the site of their old home while they wait for their new timber home to be built.
‘We chanced last winter [staying in the house] and last winter was the final straw,’ said Mr Diver, who moved the family out because of cracks in the house, which was also at risk of collapse. ‘I went through the house when the kids went to bed, and I walked around it and I was reminiscing, and every room in the house has a story, and I had tears in my eyes.’
He plans to try to salvage the door frame used to mark off the children’s heights as they grew up in the house.
Mr Diver said there were no homes for rent in Carndonagh, Co. Donegal, where he lives, and they did not want to take the children out of their schools. He said he borrowed money from family to buy a mobile home which has been installed on the site of his crumbling home.
Mr Diver has campaigned for years for 100% redress for affected homeowners. The Government introduced a scheme in 2021 to support homeowners affected by Mica and Pyrite, which is expected to cost the State more than €2billion. The scheme allows affected homeowners in Clare,
Donegal, Limerick and Mayo to apply for a maximum grant of €420,000.
Mr Diver said: ‘It should never have happened, but it’s because of a lack of regulation and market surveillance. I just hope to God the Irish Government have seen the harm this does to people and this never happens to anybody else in the future. Nobody deserves to go through this.’
Mr Diver, 43, said his family is still together but others have broken up over the stress.
He said: ‘The sad reality here is a lot of houses are condemned and people are still staying in them because they have nowhere to go.’