Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

On 16 February, the Tánaiste's colleague, the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy O'Brien, brought a memorandum to Cabinet announcing the establishment of the independent working group to examine defective housing. To date, there has been no publication of either the membership of this working group or its terms of reference. This is despite the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, promising that the group would be up and running in quarter one of this year and the programme for Government promising it would report by July.

In Donegal, I am inundated with calls, letters and email from mica-affected constituents who are at the end of their tether with the scheme that was brought in by the former Minister, Mr. Eoghan Murphy, and the Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohoe. It is not working for them. They are hoping that this group's work will be able to offer them solutions to the problems they are encountering. They are not complaining and looking for a handout. They are suggesting innovative solutions and ideas that will help them if the group engages with and listens to them, but first it needs to be operational. When will the terms of reference of the working group be brought before the House and when will we see action, not more broken promises?

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