Ms Lisa Hone:

I can tell Deputy Doherty there is huge anxiety around finances. Part of it comes from the information vacuum over what the actual scheme will deliver when it goes live. That is still a grey area. We have families who cannot even afford to apply to the current scheme because you have to pay between €6,000 or €7,000 to get the engineers' fees, costs and tests done. If between €5,000 and €7,000 is out of reach, can you imagine how it feels if you think down the line you will be looking at three, four, or five times that to replace your home? It is just not within people's reach. It is not conceivable. There is huge anxiety at the moment around the financials because there seems to be a gap between the reality, with a very particular set of terms of reference, and the reality of building a home. The SCSI gave us independent figures last year and we appreciate that, but if you go back to the terms of reference, it is like tying somebody's hand behind their back. They cannot say what the actual cost is to build the home because the terms of reference they have to use are very fanciful.