Mary Fitzpatrick (Fianna Fail)
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I am in Leinster House. Unfortunately, though, I cannot be in the committee room.

I thank the witnesses, especially the homeowners, for giving of their time today to share with us their experience and for the work they are doing every other day as well. Their testimonies were passionate and compelling. Buying your first home is exciting, but it is also arguably the most stressful thing that any of us will ever do. It is up there with divorce, bankruptcy and the loss of a family member. I am in Dublin and am not living in the witnesses’ communities with them and their neighbours, so I can only imagine their stress and anxiety living with the uncertainty and the constant undermining of their sense of security in what should be the most secure place for them. I genuinely hear them. As a member of Fianna Fáil, I offer them apologies from my colleagues – the Minister of State, Deputy Calleary, Senators Chambers and Blaney and others – for not being present, but I want the witnesses to know that they are heard. That is important. We are having this session with them and another session this afternoon with the Department, the County and City Management Association, CCMA, and the National Standards Authority of Ireland, NSAI. We are raising the witnesses’ points on their behalf.

I will not go through each of the testimonies, as I appreciate that time is short and that the Cathaoirleach did what he needed to do to keep contributions equal, but each of the witnesses was critical. They spoke about civil rights and essentially described what they were experiencing as a humanitarian crisis. They have all been at this for a long time – it has been almost 20 years since the problem was first detected – but the revised scheme has been at least two years in the making and a large amount of public funds are being allocated. The criticisms the witnesses made were stark. Before our next session, I would like to hear from the three homeowner groups. Are they so critical as to believe that the scheme as it stands should be scrapped or is there scope within it to meet their needs and those of their communities? I would like to hear from Dr. Cleary, Ms Hegarty and Ms Hone.