Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I sent a letter to Deputy McConalogue today on this matter so I will give him a short answer now. We agreed last year to allocate money in order to show our commitment to addressing this issue, to be fair to all of the homeowners affected. We did that, even though the scheme was not fully worked out at that stage. That work has been ongoing since then. As the Deputy knows, there have been some very good meetings between officials in the Department and the local authorities in Donegal and Mayo about the finer details of the scheme. That work is very close to its conclusion and the scheme will be able to start in the weeks ahead. That work had to go on and the Deputy was well aware that last year when the money was allocated that the scheme was not fully ready but we wanted to make sure that the money was there so that we could begin work.

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