Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

----does the Taoiseach not understand this? Is every single homeowner who has rejected the scheme wrong? They know their own lived experience because they need the house that is crumbling around them fixed. They are facing another Christmas where they do not know where they will be next Christmas. These houses are in a terrible state and they need a proper scheme.

We came in here on the basis of what was said to campaigners yesterday morning to welcome this scheme in the main. That was what was going to happen. However, the Cabinet got hold of this and butchered it. The reality is the SCSI indicates the cost of rebuilding a house in the north west is way higher that what is indicated under this scheme. The Government has taken the SCSI figure and butchered it with "economies of scale" that will remain in future. It is there on page seven in the questions and answers section.

The Taoiseach stated I have made up figures. He might listen to what Donegal County Council has done in processing the existing scheme. The average house size that has gone through that give the figures I put on record yesterday. More important, 43 tenders have come in with the cost to demolish those houses and rebuild them. The homeowners do not want to make a penny out of this; they just want their homes built. Donegal County Council has told the Government, including the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy McConalogue, and the Taoiseach that it is a cost of €150 per square foot. If the Taoiseach really wants to do what he just said, get rid of the sliding scale. Engineers and surveyors have said they do not know where it comes from. The SCSI does not have it in its calculator. Get rid of it and we can work on this scheme.

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