Joe McHugh (Donegal, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for that response. Looking within that script and from listening to the feedback, there seems to be pathway. The issue at the moment, however, is that there is a communication deficit. That is where the difficulty lies. Going back to the original 90:10 scheme, when we all hoped that was going to be the vehicle for helping and assisting people to get out of this situation, communication was an issue then too. Communication is the issue all the time with regard to the difficulties in which people find themselves. This is a humanitarian crisis. There is no other description for it. We are dealing with victims who want their lives to move on.

Having thought about it for a considerable time, I believe this is too big an issue for one Department. Even in my contribution earlier, I was talking about primary and secondary school and the impact on third-level education. There is a role in the Minister of State's own Department and, in fact, the education and training board, ETB, in County Donegal has a submission into the Department of Education regarding assistance, help, support and resources for young people affected by defective blocks in Donegal.

Tonight, in Buncrana, for example, there is a residents meeting about a housing estate that was flooded in 2017. Nine of the houses have defective blocks and they are in a flood plain. The people have come up with a common-sense solution not to reconstruct the houses on this site and to look at relocation. Therefore, the OPW is involved. This is affecting people's health. The Department of Health is involved. I mentioned the Department of Education and OPW. We could go through a litany of other Departments. This complex issue is so wide and varied that I actually believe we need to look at an interdepartmental approach that must be led from the top. I am calling tonight publicly for Cabinet, the Taoiseach's Office and the Taoiseach and Tánaiste to really consider the possibility is setting up a Taoiseach-led interdepartmental group to deal with this issue. As far as I am concerned, since I have been involved in this scheme, there are massive deficits regarding, first, communication and, second, accountability because when things are said, they are not followed through and who is left in the lurch? It is the people who want their lives to move on. They feel they are locked in and fixed in a situation, and that trauma is not getting any lesser. It is an issue that we have. Never mind a legislative obligation, we have a moral obligation to tackle this issue and we still have time to do that.

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