Mr. Pat Montague:

To be frank, it is actually on my conscience. It is something that worries me. I am aware of a number of things and of really risky developments. I was very hopeful - I am still hopeful, as I am a positive person - because when the then Minister agreed to the interim remediation scheme in December 2022 and it was set up a year later, given that we had to have the fire safety code of practice, we thought all of that was ready to go. It has not moved yet, though. I hope that today's hearing might encourage people forward on this because some of those four pathfinder projects have an extraordinarily high risk from a fire safety point of view. I know because some of the professionals working on them have said they have sleepless nights thinking about it.

I am thinking about the people in Mr. Lambe's development who saw a block going up. There are 12 blocks in his development on Clarion Quay, with another going up. It is really difficult for the people in the other 11 blocks to sleep at night with the anxiety and worry. I am conscious that, to be fair, the Minister has acknowledged that the slowness is a problem and we need to resolve this. The officials in the Department, certainly from recent discussions I have had, recognise this and the Housing Agency definitely does, as it knows this is not working. However, we need to quickly resolve the processes around the interim remediation scheme so that we can get grants out and works done. It is not removing all the fire safety risk. What it is doing is bringing the risk to an acceptable level but it is not removing all the risk because we are not putting fire stopping in. All we are doing is giving them a greater ability to evacuate safely in the event of there being a fire, so there is more to be done.

On retrospective payments and the legislation, there were eight pathfinders. We agreed that with the then Minister, Deputy O'Brien, last year and they have handed over all their information. They were promised last year that they would be reimbursed their moneys in 2025. That needs to be advanced.

This committee needs to have the legislation in front of it. I understand there are some good reasons with regard to allocation of staff in the parliamentary draftsman's office and all the rest but we need the legislation to come for pre-legislative scrutiny before this term is over at Christmas. If it seeps into next year, then we are looking to mid-2027 before the full scheme is up and running. Why is that? It will be 16 years since Priory Hall. It will be ten years since the "Safe as Houses?" report, which this committee drafted. Then, at that stage, it will be five years since the working group on defective homes reported. People will start to lose trust that this is going to happen. Confidence is at a low ebb as it stands because of all the delays. I hope the people involved will have a much greater sense of urgency emerging from this because that has been quite dispiriting at times, to be frank, seeing it drag out and drag out, recognising the risk that is there to people's lives.