Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome an important step in this legislation coming before the House. It is a crucial step in ensuring that homeowners in my own county and many other counties can get their lives back on track and try to remove themselves from the nightmare that they have been living for well over a decade.

Like every other person in Donegal, I have neighbours, family and friends affected. If someone is not affected, he or she has a brother or sister, mother or father, or a son or daughter affected. That is how pervasive, unfortunately, this disaster is in my home county, particularly in the northern half. Unfortunately, it has affected every family in the county. It has impacted their mental and physical health, the lives of children as they have grown up and marriages. It has put an immense strain on family life and on people being able to live a normal life. That is why it is so crucial that we get a scheme in place that will work for families and deliver the support they need to get their homes fixed.

I first visited a home impacted by this in late 2013 and I campaigned in opposition to get a scheme in place in as timely a manner as possible. Since gaining the privilege to work as a Cabinet Minister, following my appointment to Government, I have worked with the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, the Taoiseach and party leaders, Government colleagues and constituency colleagues from all parties to progress a Bill and to try to bring it forward as quickly as possible. I want to recognise the work of everyone who has contributed to that. I recognise the support of the Taoiseach who visited the county and put in place a working group following on from that to fully examine the issues at play and the tremendous role of the Minister in leading out on this and bringing the legislation together working with his team, including John O'Connor, Kevin Dillon, all his officials and the Office of the Attorney General. I want to particularly recognise the role of homeowners and the work that they have done while living what should have been a normal life in trying to get this issue addressed and fixed. I thank those involved in the working group.

I welcome those who are here today. It is far from the first day that many people have been outside the House, in the Dáil or in this city on this issue. I commend the work put in by Michael Doherty, Paddy Diver, Eileen Doherty and Ann Owens in the working group that was established. I commend the work and leadership of the Mica Action Group under the chairmanship of Eamon Jackson in Donegal and Martina Hegarty in Mayo. That is what it has got to get us to this stage.

There are 50 pages of legislation here and the Bill was published over a week ago. I have done all I can working within Government to try to get to the stage where it delivers an entirely different scheme, with an entirely different level of support, from the scheme that was there previously. The work the committee did last week was important and the examination and the consideration of the Dáil and Seanad will be important. I recognise and welcome the support across the Dáil to get this legislation passed by the summer recess. I note the unanimous support of the housing committee last week. I welcome that the committee structured its examination to ensure that would be possible. It will be important to have further engagement with the Business Committee to try to provide as much time as we can for this before the recess. I know several Bills are coming through the Dáil over the next two weeks and we have a very heavy schedule. However, as much time as possible should be provided to this Bill. It is important that the amendments being submitted today are given consideration and reflected upon.

This is an entirely different scheme from what was in place previously. It is based on independent assessments and costings provided by the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland based on up-to-date building costs as recently as March. It has a cap of €420,000 versus the previous cap of €275,000. Unlike the pyrite scheme on the east coast, it facilitates rental properties - one rental property per owner. Unlike the previous scheme, the new scheme provides €15,000 for accommodation and €5,000 for storage. When the scheme is enacted, an application will cost €500 as opposed to the €6,000 or €7,000 that homeowners had to find upfront previously.

More work remains to be done. The regulations will be important. I look forward to working with the Minister and colleagues to ensure those are brought forward as quickly as possible. We need to consider the outstanding issues to be addressed in the legislation or regulations, for example, flexibility on downsizing. Also important is the National Standards Authority of Ireland's work on the new deleterious materials that have emerged such as pyrrhotite and other sulphurs. Information needs to be provided as quickly as possible so that scientific advice is available to the Government to ensure the scheme can be updated and the science follows.

In the interim period, we need enhanced engagement between the Department, Donegal County Council and other local authorities to ensure as many as possible of the applications in train can move on and that as many houses as possible can be fixed as quickly as possible.

I again thank everyone involved in getting us to this stage. More work remains to be done, but we are in a strong place now and that is thanks to the engagement of homeowners and everyone coming together to do this. It is important now to step it out and take on board the views of all in the House who recognise the importance of ensuring this Bill, providing for the scheme, is passed before the summer recess.

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