Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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I thank Mr. Wickham and I appreciate his answers.

I will revisit Mr. Rafferty's opening statement. I know some of our colleagues have already said it. I had an exchange with Mr. Rafferty's senior colleague, Mr. Fergal Quigley, about this at a previous committee. I appeal to him not to have anybody from the Department of housing come in here again to say the grant amount covers 100% of the work required to remediate a home. It is utterly offensive. I will ask him to do the following. There are a number of facilitators working in County Donegal. These facilitators are ultimately employed by the State. They work for the Inishowen Development Partnership and the Donegal Local Development Company. It is their job to assist applicants to apply for the scheme. They are working with hundreds of families. For the information of Mr. Rafferty, many of these applicants, because of the time period these houses were built, are in their 60s and 70s. Some are in their 80s. They cannot access finance. No bank will lend a substantial amount of money to somebody of that age. They are tens of thousands of euro short, which is same scenario that led to the failure of the previous scheme and is why it had to be changed. In conscience, does he stand over that statement? How can he stand over the statement that 100% is being covered?