Ms Lisa Hone:

I will make a point on that. There is a big difference between this and previous schemes. The Leinster pyrite scheme was an end-to-end scheme. A lot of the issues homeowners face in trying to deal with the defective blocks scheme are taken away because there is an end-to-end scheme. The finances are handled by the agency. Also, a fundamental difference is the testing and all the preparation. Effectively, the house is assessed and built back the way it was prior to the issue emerging. All of the issues homeowners are mired in - it feels like wrestling with an octopus sometimes - would go away if there was an end-to-end scheme. The principles of how the scheme is organised are plain wrong.

A big difference between this scheme and the Leinster pyrite scheme is that it removes all deleterious material. That is a fundamental. It is one of the reasons we have so many issues still overhanging with this scheme. Even with option 1, it does not deal with the poured concrete foundations. You still may have potentially deleterious material in your poured concrete foundations. That is what the research says. That is where the issue regarding mortgageability comes in. You are potentially retaining defective materials. With options 2, 3 and 4, you have defective blocks. With option 1, you still have defective foundations. There must be a recognition. How can engineers sign off on a structure that still retains defective material? Everybody knows it still retains defective material. They will not get professional indemnity insurance. That is the message and we need clarity on that. We need a definition of that from the likes of Engineers Ireland.

The fundamentals of this scheme are just plain wrong. They have been wrong since we were denied pre-legislative scrutiny, which would have addressed a lot of this. This is a shameful episode in the way this was allowed to happen in the first place. How did we even get to where we are now?

What is equally shameful is the way the response has been handled. It has been bitty and piecemeal and homeowners have been made to feel like it is all our fault, we are a burden on the State and we are parasitical. This has nothing to do with what we did. We did not do anything wrong or different from anybody else but the response has been completely and utterly inadequate and shameful. People are suffering torment because of that inadequate response, and it has to stop. That is why in our statement we said we need an urgent intervention. This is grinding on year in, year out. It has to stop. These fundamentals have to be addressed and there has to be big change.

We hear the Department of housing say the six-month review is coming up. The phrase used was that "the fundamentals of the scheme will not change". That is just not good enough. A six-month review is utterly meaningless. We are pushing paper around. It is another Government PR exercise, putting something out into the public domain to make it look like it is doing something when it is actually doing nothing. It is leaving thousands of people to suffer. There is more coming down the tracks. There are loads more counties coming down the tracks. This has to stop and must be addressed. Fundamental changes are needed right now. Please do not make me come to another committee where I have to have the same conversation over and over again.