Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Colleagues across the House have worked together on this and I want to continue in that vein. I meet residents regularly. I have had a number of webinars with them and met the representative groups as recently as 10 May. The legislation is complex and we need to get it right. It is important residents know where work has been done already. An important decision was made by the Government that retrospection and costs incurred will be covered and, for those entering into works, those works will be covered and will not have to be paused.

I am looking with the Housing Agency at, for want of a better phrase, a hardship fund for some owners management companies, OMCs, that may not have access to any finance to carry out certain safety works.

These are not necessarily full remediations in that sense because we need the scheme to be stood up. That is why the code of practice on the fire services side is really important in order that we can show people the works that are being done on an interim basis. That is being advanced. We have the input of the fire services officers right across the local authorities on that. We are doing that as quickly as we can. I have kept residents abreast of that work too. I want the schemes to be stood up in 2024.

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