Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister's response but he said that once a house is certified, it will be able to be mortgaged and insured. The core issue is that the banks cannot give a guarantee that these properties will be able to be mortgaged. Why is that? It is because the engineers cannot give a guarantee that they will certify the works. That is what is at the very heart of this. It is one year since the scheme was launched. The scheme has seen a tiny number of new applications because there are so many problems with it, along with the mishmash and the failure of Government to deal with this issue.j

This has been on the table for a while. The subgroup only met this month. I have been raising this issue with the Minister since last year. Has the Minister engaged with the BPFI to understand what is at the heart of this? Has he engaged with the engineers who are responsible for certifying these properties? Once they are certified, we know the banks will step in but the problem is that the engineers cannot certify these houses under the scheme because of the way the Government is dealing with it, not least the fact it will not allow foundations in the scheme.

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