Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his reply. My understanding is that of the four local authorities which received the draft regulations at the end of last year, the one in Donegal is refusing to give the Minister’s Department a formal comment because it is not allowed to discuss the regulations with its elected members. I welcome the fact the Minister has asked the SCSI to update the unit-square metre cost but I understand that for Mayo and Donegal, it will not be completed until the end of February, and for County Clare, it will not be completed until April. That means the final regulations are unlikely to be concluded until March for the first two counties, and May for the second two counties. The local authorities will require at least two to three months to get their systems in place, which means people will not be able to either apply to the new scheme or be transferred to the new scheme until June at the earliest for Donegal and Mayo, and August for Clare and Limerick. If any of that is incorrect or different from the Minister’s own expectations, please let me know.

As the Minister knows, there is considerable anger in the counties affected by defective blocks because the scheme that we have all worked together on for a long time with regard to building defects has an element of retrospection, which is something that was denied to folks with defective blocks. There are also no caps where full 100% redress is intended to be provided for building defects. That, again, is something that is not in the legislation in regard to defective blocks. Will the Minister revisit those two key issues, namely, retrospection and full 100% redress for the families affected by the defective blocks in all counties?

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