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

I reject completely the charge that we have stuck our heads in the sand. Let us deal with the issue itself, however. Deputy Doherty is aware that in June of last year, I commenced the enhanced scheme through the Remediation of Dwellings Damaged by the Use of Defective Concrete Blocks Act 2022. I remind him that he and his party voted against that enhanced scheme, which would have left residents with a cap of €247,000 on grants instead of €420,000, and would not have included an additional rental property because the previous scheme did not. Therefore, it is the principal private residence plus one additional property. I will come back on a number of other issues. We will be reviewing that. Obviously, as we said, the 12-month review is built into the legislation, which this Government brought forward supported by many Deputies, but not by the Deputy and his colleagues in Sinn Féin.

Really, what is important here is helping residents. I know Deputy Doherty knows that because he is a TD in one of the affected areas. If I look at the trajectory with regard to applications for the Deputy's own county for argument's sake, we have received 1,515 applications to the scheme in Donegal. We received 64 in County Clare, 24 in County Limerick and 367 in County Mayo. The scheme is taking hold. We also have people on the ground through the housing agency to assist people. That needs to ramp up and it is ramping up.

If I look at homes under remediation at the moment, we have approximately 272 homes right now being remediated across the counties. I will give the Deputy the up-to-date figure in his own county of Donegal where we are looking at 129 being remediated, 43 of which are completed. I absolutely want to see that ramp up and increase. We have staged payments through the scheme, as the Deputy will know as well. There are a number of different stages. We are looking to see how we can improve the efficiency within that. However, my job is to help these homeowners to get their homes fixed and, most importantly, to get their lives back together. I have also engaged with them regularly through the implementation group. I am committed to making sure this scheme continues to work for people.

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