John Cummins (Fine Gael)
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On the repair and lease scheme, I am a strong advocate for changing the dial in terms of the delivery of units in my own county of Waterford. On 14 April, the new Minister of State, Deputy O'Donnell, and, earlier, the Minister visited the old nursing home at St. Joseph's House, Manor Hill, Waterford city. The building belonged to the Little Sisters of the Poor but it is now being converted into 71 units for older persons and the project will be ready next month. That is fantastic news but the project could not have been delivered without the repair and lease scheme. As part of that scheme a special case was made to raise the ceiling from €60,000 to €70,000 and the reason was because additional funding was needed to complete a development of that nature. When representatives of the city councils of Cork, Dublin and Limerick were before this committee they asked for the amount to be increased from €60,000 to €80,000, and I think that increase must happen. As I said last week when the Department officials were here, I emphasised that such expenditure would be fully recouped by the State. It makes inherent sense to invest upfront in order to deliver this scheme and ask that the financial ceiling for the repair and lease scheme is increased.