Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate the Minister of State is reading the response from the Department and Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy O'Brien, but it is disappointing to hear it.

Clearly, whoever wrote this, including the Minister, who signed off on it, does not understand what is happening in the counties we are talking about in the west. Right now, as we speak, people are living in homes that are not fit for human habitation. They do not have access to the €15,000 because they are not through stage 1 of the scheme. Why? They are not through stage 1 because they are caught in a quagmire. It is bureaucracy and failure by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. They cannot access €15,000 and, even if they could, it is very hard to find alternative accommodation.

This is a humanitarian crisis. The Minister should have been here tonight. He needs to read this transcript, urgently. He needs to come up to Donegal and visit some of these houses and see for himself what we are talking about. These people should not be in these homes this winter. They need accommodation urgently and I am asking that he look especially at high-quality, modular housing located throughout the county. It needs to happen now.

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