Frank Feighan (Sligo-Leitrim, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I take on board the Deputies' concerns and the fact they are calling for high-quality, modular housing to be located in Donegal and probably other countries. I will certainly bring those concerns and the proposal that he visit back to the Minister. The purpose of the Remediation of Dwellings Damaged By the Use of Defective Concrete Blocks Act 2022 is to implement and give legislative underpinning to a series of measures to approve and enhance the defective concrete blocks, DCB, scheme, as agreed by the Government on 13 November 2021. This improvement includes a 100% grant subject to an overall maximum grant of €420,000.

Officials from the Department have been in ongoing engagement with Donegal County Council, especially on the implementation of the scheme and have recently approved the role of two facilitators to assist and it is hoped those facilitators will be able to get in there. The Deputies could give those names and addresses and we could try to note them and iron out the difficulties the Deputies have outlined.

Ongoing engagement also continues between the homeowners and the Minister's nominated homeowner liaison, Mr. John O'Connor, and the Department as to the designed implementation of the new scheme. Legislation is being progressed. Earlier this month, the Department published a comprehensive and updated the Your Questions Answered document on its website to ensure homeowners have the most up-to-date information available to them.

We will continue to work on the regulations that underpin the enhanced scheme in order to have it up and running as early as possible. I am sure, in some situations, there will be anomalies and difficulties and sometimes it is not perfect. The Deputies are here tonight to raise these concerns. I will bring the concerns back to the Minister and if the Deputies wish to send me an email about the difficulties, I will send that on to the Minister as quickly as possible.

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