Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I do not know if the Minister of State is aware of the financial situation of MDY Construction. Some reports suggest it is in receivership or, if not, it is definitely in financial trouble, given that all of the subcontractors have taken all of their equipment and left all of its sites. This has left social housing units either just started, half-complete or literally days from completion.

What I want from the Minister of State is reassurance, in particular for those waiting for housing in Orchard Meadows in Cherry Orchard, where this week 35 homes were meant to be allocated to families who have been waiting for them, some of whom have managed to delay their notice to quit from landlords but who now have very insecure tenancies because they were meant to move into these new homes this week. At Dolphin Park, which is a senior citizens complex where the Minister turned the sod in April, the project was flying ahead but is now totally stalled. There are other sites where work has stalled, for example, at Kilbride in County Wicklow, where more than 40 social housing units were due to be ready next year. The reassurance I am looking for is that everything that can be done will be done to deliver these homes to the families who are waiting for them, in particular the homes in Cherry Orchard, which are in a state of readiness. I visited the site twice in the last month and I see no reason these homes cannot be allocated to the families who have already been told which house they will have. Let us think about that. They have already put their children into schools locally in anticipation of the move, given the project has already been delayed by a number of months thus far.

That is one job of work. The other job that needs to be tackled by this Government is the continuous abuse of subcontractors. Here again we have workers and subcontractors with no wages and no income, which will cause other financial difficulties, if not collapses of small companies. This needs to be borne in mind.

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