Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Up to last week, I had expected I would be obliged to proceed immediately with the imposition of a solution - in other words, to bring forward the necessary legislation to introduce the levy on a mandatory basis. While I may still be so obliged, there has been substantial engagement by all stakeholders in recent days. We received a highly positive response and indication from the financial institutions as late as today, which leads me to believe there is now a window of opportunity - if the Construction Industry Federation, the Irish Concrete Federation, HomeBond and the insurance sector will avail of it - to deal with this problem which, through no fault of the homeowners, has been caused by the building sector. It is up to the latter to make sure they are in a position to meet the requirements for remediation of these houses. I would prefer a voluntary solution because I can set it up much more quickly through the pyrite resolution board, but if we must go down the road of forcing people to pay the necessary levy, we will do so. We will come to a conclusion, one way or the other, on this particular road in the next ten days or two weeks.