Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is important to say that it is not the engineers themselves but the limitations they have to work to that is of concern to us. We are also concerned about the damage threshold in terms of how long people have to wait. People know that remedial action has to be taken on their house at some point but they are being told to wait until it gets bad enough. We need to make this scheme as fair as possible and I know Deputy English will agree with this. I know he worked on the original scheme many years ago. At that time we pointed out many of the things that we are discussing today that needed to be changed about the scheme, including the 100%, but those suggestions were not taken on board.

I would not in any way like the message to go out from this committee that it is the engineers' fault but it is the set-up of it. We do not want a situation where people are going to feel that they have to take a lesser option. We have a responsibility to make sure safeguards are in place from the beginning. This will allow people to replace their house so that they can securely go into the future in terms of the value of their home. It will allow them to sell their home if they need to, or get get insurance on it. I have concerns that because people are in different financial situations they would be restricted from getting the optimum benefit. This scheme is intended to replace their homes, to rebuild their homes, and anything less would not be acceptable. That is why the 100% is so important.