Alan Dillon (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy. As I said in my opening statement, the Minister for Justice has responsibility for the MUDs Act. While our Department is the policy holder, we continue to work in relation to the remediation of structural defects in MUDs.

The Department is currently engaging with the Department of Justice in respect of the review. As regards the draft regulations, my Department received draft regulations proposed by the Housing Agency, which is the State body under the aegis of our Department. A policy paper, as I said, is being advanced by the Department to guide the review and finalisation of the draft regulations.

Also, there are five pathfinder projects currently in process. There will be, in answer to the Deputy's question, a retrospective position in relation to this. We are working with the Construction Defects Alliance in that regard. The apartment and defect scheme has been designed and will proceed separate to the application for the MUDs Act. I would also say while the role of the OMC is in applying for the apartment and duplex defects scheme, the discharging of the grant is important in the overall evolvement of the process to contain due to the multistage nature of this scheme.

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