Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will take this slot and Deputy Conway-Walsh will take the first Sinn Féin slot in the next round. I thank all of the witnesses for attending the committee, for being so frank and giving us information, particularly Ms Hone and Ms Hegarty. It must be incredibly frustrating to have to tell our committee the same things as last time. Please do not think it is not valuable or important for the work we are doing.

Nobody here is saying that the scheme should not get up and running. In fact, homeowners have been pleading for this scheme to get up and running as quickly as possible. The message that is loud and clear to this committee is that a parallel piece of work is required, as the scheme gets up and running, to fix all of the problems that not just the homeowners but the engineers in the room have outlined.

There are many of us in this committee who are more than willing to give a commitment that we are going to continue to try to have the problems that have been raised here resolved. Some of them will take changes in legislation, regulations and policy, but we all want this scheme to work in the way that the homeowners have asked. I have two specific questions which relate to the operation of the revised scheme. It is not because I am not taking on board the things the witnesses said about all the other issues. I think they have been well rehearsed.

My first question is for the representatives from Donegal and Mayo. Obviously, for those homeowners who are in the existing scheme, there are so-called transitional mechanisms to move them from the existing scheme and enable them to avail of the changes in the revised scheme. I am hearing some concerns that those transitional mechanisms may be too burdensome in terms of the administrative burden on homeowners who have already gone through two years of the existing scheme. Do the witnesses have any concerns specifically about the transitional mechanisms, and are there things that we can be highlighting with the Department to try to make it as easy as possible for those homeowners? I heard John McLaughlin from Donegal County Council on the radio yesterday. He seemed to be suggesting that if an applicant just forgot to submit some of the documentation, there would not be a process by which somebody would pick up the phone and tell them a document was missing and ask them to resubmit it, and that people would be forced into appealing on refusal. Do the witnesses have concerns for new entrants to the scheme about the level of bureaucracy that is imposed? Ms Hegarty spoke to it briefly earlier.

Finally, we have an opportunity with Clare finally getting into the scheme. Where is that at? Are there things we need to be saying to the Department to make sure the homeowners are not waiting an undue amount of time before they have access to funds?