Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

There will be changes as a result of the introduction of the revised scheme which will allow for stage payments. However, a 10% retention on each of the stage payments is going to be problematic again. Perhaps Ms Shovlin will address this issue. Anybody who is involved in this area knows many others in a similar position. It is important to put on the record that while we have four people affected here, we do not know how many others are in this position. The banks are dealing with what is going to be a tsunami of these cases. The witnesses are leading the field and the banks are trying to find their way but the problem is that the banks are going to have to deal with thousands of people. Ms Shovlin made the point that there needs to be a bespoke solution for those who have homes built with defective blocks. We all know owners of these homes who have gone through stage 1 of the process and full demolition is required but they may be of pension age. How are they going to get loans of €20,000 or €30,000 from the credit union? Ms McDade knows the cost of her rebuild will be €12,000 more than the €420,000 grant. For many others, the costs are going to be €40,000 and €50,000 higher than the grant. How does a pensioner get a loan for that when he or she is relying on the State pension?