Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy. The Government and I recognise the seriousness of the issues which he has raised this morning and the impact they have had on individual families. It is very distressing for these families. It involves more than 5,000 houses, including local authority and private housing. The Minister received the report recently and is now examining the recommendations. The Government has not delayed. It takes the issue very seriously and is determined to find solutions to help those families. The expert report has been received very recently. It was the right route to take to have experts examine what precisely the technical solutions should be. We have to examine what they might be and what action can be taken and then put the solutions in place. I am sure the Deputy will agree that the Department and the Minister should, in the first instance, examine the recommendations.

I wish to assure the Deputy, and all of the people who have been affected by this, that the Government is determined to deal with the situation and to take action to help the families which the Deputy has described because it is extraordinarily distressing to either buy a house or be living in one in which such serious problems as this have emerged. The Deputy has talked about a remediation scheme. I want to assure him that the Minister and Ministers of State are determined to deal with this, to put the proper solutions in place, and to help the families who have been impacted by this issue.

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