Dr. Martina Cleary:

There is a revision to the original submission made to the committee on Monday. As of Tuesday evening, the portal is open for people to apply. However, there are issues with access to experts in the region that can conduct the BCA. I phoned them and as a representative of homeowners, I can say that they are having a similar experience. The issue concerns project management. We do not have a list of people who will conduct the initial BCA. We are relying on experts from Mayo or Limerick, potentially. There is no facilitator in place. On the issue of prioritisation and transparency, we really need an indication of projected figures. We need to know how many homes, per county, per year, that they are aiming to address as part of the scheme. I have already asked the question. There is vagueness in the prioritisation metric in the hands of the Housing Agency in respect of the damage threshold, in that there is a relativity issue. Are we being compared relatively to homes that have been deteriorating for 15 years in Donegal, for example? I have asked that question at some of the meetings of the working group with the Minister and the Housing Agency. I have been told that the scheme is for every county, but there is no transparency there. The figures that are coming out from Donegal on how many homes have been remediated since the initial scheme was opened are shocking. They are so low. There needs to be a massive upscaling in terms of telling people how many houses will be addressed under the scheme per county, per year. There also needs to be an annual check-in as to what is being delivered.