Mr. Pat McCormack:

The three contributors are rural Members of the Houses. On what Senator Dolan said, if we came across as negative it certainly was not the intention. The intention was to highlight the challenges associated with the scheme as it is. I think it was Deputy Nolan who talked about working to tweak issues. The 13-month period is certainly a huge issue, because for anyone who went to build, it always ran over time and it is hard to get the builder in and it is impossible to get him out. That is the reality of it and why we submitted that it should be 26 months rather than 24 months, because it is absolutely necessary. Mr. Rushe touched on the drawdown of the grant aid and how, rather than having to wait for the entire €70,000, people could get €12,000, €14,000 or €15,000 on a number of occasions. We also need to be careful about the fact that if people sign up for this grant there is, as Mr. Punch alluded, a lien on the holding of a title. That in itself prohibits the opportunity to draw down financial support or loans independently on that particular site or folio.

Deputy Healy-Rae raised the real issues that are out there in rural Ireland, such as the sterilisation of land with bypasses and the opportunity for ring roads etc. That is a huge challenge, but overall it is up to us as farm organisations and rural public representatives to drive home the message there is an alternative out there. Maybe it is a ruin someone's grandparents or indeed great-grandparents lived in at one time that could be done up and made habitable to afford a farm family the opportunity to be grandparents or downsize. It is not confined to farm households, and I think it was the Chairman who alluded to that. It could be any rural derelict or semi-derelict house. There are streets not too far away from me and other main streets in rural towns that are pretty derelict. I hope we will see life brought back into rural Ireland as a result of this. It is about creating homes and letting everyone have the opportunity to have a home.