Dr. Martina Cleary:

When it comes to the appeals process, we are obviously watching very closely what is coming in from Donegal. Under the transitional agreement, a lot of properties were transitioned from the older scheme to the new scheme but there were houses that did not quite make it through. It used to be the local authority that was making the determination but there were a certain amount of houses that were passed across to the Housing Agency and they recently received a number of decisions, or an option 2 for houses where the initial expert engineer had said that these are option 1 demolitions. I am sure Ms Hone will be able to speak about that.

We are dreading this happening in County Clare as well. We do not think we are going to be treated exceptionally differently. We have already heard from Donegal that the appeals process is not up and running yet. We are prepared to start appealing, but if we start appealing to a procedure that has not actually been instigated, then that is what we are worried about. It is another delaying mechanism.

On the Senator's other point about the fair deal scheme, what has emerged, unfortunately, is that there are a lot of elderly people impacted in County Clare. Many of them will be relying on their property where, under the fair deal scheme, you can put the value of your property up against your nursing home costs. We had at least two homeowners at a meeting at the launch of the scheme who are literally homeless and could not avail of this. They raised this concern through one of our local TDs, Deputy Cathal Crowe. He raised this as an issue, and the answer that came back was it would be dealt with on a one-by-one basis. Before this meeting, I even spoke to one of our own young local authority aspirants for the next election. We were discussing exactly this matter, and he is getting the same from about four or five people in his area. Unfortunately, if you are elderly, you cannot be dealing on a one-to-one basis to see if your home actually holds value.

We went into the financial working subcommittee and there was extensive discussion there. Donegal has been discussing with Banking and Payments Federation Ireland about whether these properties will be remortgageable and whether their full value will be restored. Unfortunately, it seems to be at a crux at the moment where Engineers Ireland is not prepared to sign off on remediation options where there is any potential for defective material being left in the buildings. The banks will not restore the value of the properties, so elderly people have been left in absolute limbo. That is the last thing you need at that advanced age, with advanced illness and all of those other issues. This is going to exacerbate that human impact.