Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for her response. She is correct that I am going to come back and say I know all that. There is no new information there. I have asked parliamentary questions consistently, both on the floor of the Dáil and for written answer, to the Minister for the past number of years but in particular in regard to the conclusion of this report in the past number of months. Recent replies I have got have been exactly the same with no change in the position. It is the same today.

As I said, the Government has been ducking and diving on this issue. Unfortunately, the Minister seems to be ducking and diving in terms of accounting for it here today.

The commitment, when this was announced in November 2015 some three months before the general election, was that the report would be finished by 31 May last year. It is almost 31 May one year later and there is still no report.

This report is completed and it is on the Minister's desk. He does not need to obfuscate or indicate that somehow he does not have it and that it is undergoing legal proofing, because we have been told in oral responses here previously that he has it and that he has referred it to the Attorney General. It is more ducking and diving, instead of generating a sense of urgency on this and publishing the report.

Families cannot wait on it. They have been expecting it for a long time. They cannot get their own expert advice, with each talking individually to scientists about the issue and to engineers about the solution. It is up to the expert panel to collate that.

The panel has been charged with that work. Its final result is the report which everyone, including the families themselves and the Members of the Dáil, needs to consider. Subsequently, we must determine what supports, remedies and schemes need to be put in place to provide financial assistance to families, which will be a job of work. Much work will need to be done to address and remedy these family homes. Will the Minister of State go back to the Minister of State, Deputy English, and tell him to get a move on, stop ducking and diving on this, and publish this report?

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