Ms Martina Hegarty:

What happened in Mayo last summer brings into question the whole process and the understanding that local authorities decide whether applications are eligible. Again, decisions on houses are being made based on desktop studies without anything being physically seen. Having outsourced the contract to review homes, Mayo County Council decided that there was no pattern of cracking present. Over a period of two months, we were put through what can only be described as absolute torture.

We had to get our own engineers out again to reassess our homes and put forward more evidence to say that we should be accepted onto the scheme. The only reason that we did get onto the scheme was because during the appeal process an independent engineer was brought in from outside the county. In conversations with him when he attended my home he basically said "I do not know what I am doing here". When one thinks about it, if one local authority can have one opinion on the damage threshold, what is going to happen when 12 local authorities have an opinion on the damage threshold? It is going to be unworkable. The only way to roll out the scheme effectively is to have one central hub, not 12 local authorities. I will now hand over to Mr. Campbell to speak on the foundation side.