Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Pringle for raising this issue. I know this has been extraordinarily tough and difficult. Those words do not fully capture the struggle and the stress that many families living in the Deputy's county and some other counties have been dealing with as a result of the loss and destruction of their homes due to defective blocks. We have worked very hard on this issue as a Government. The Minister, Deputy McConalogue, has worked very hard on this at the Cabinet table with our colleagues as well.

We have now seen over 1,600 applications. These are real applications from real people. I ask the Deputy not to roll his eyes to heaven. They have been received to the previous scheme and now we have received more than 350 additional applications to the enhanced scheme up to the end of February of this year. This is a lot of people. This is 1,950 applications.

The 2022 Act, which we passed, underpins the new enhanced grant scheme and it has designated the counties of Clare, Donegal, Limerick and Mayo as being within the enhanced scheme. The final regulations were put in place as a result of an extended and extensive amount of consultation with key stakeholders, particularly the local authorities and the homeowner action groups.

The Minister for housing received Government approval last month for the designation of Sligo County Council under the scheme and will now arrange for the moving of a motion for a resolution in each House of the Oireachtas and then bring a second memorandum to Government seeking to give effect to that as well.

The Housing Agency is currently working through the process with three additional local authorities, in counties Carlow and Wexford and with Fingal County Council.

The Cabinet agreed today to try to resolve various issues highlighted by affected homeowners looking to avail of SEAI support. The Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, will announce details of that in due course. He has worked hard on that as well. We have also set up, under the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, an implementation steering group for the enhanced defective concrete blocks grant scheme. This includes officials from the relevant councils, the Department and the Housing Agency, as well as the homeowners liaison officer. The group has met several times over the past number of months. It is charged with keeping the regulations and guidelines, and their operation, under review and will continue to do so. We will continue to engage and to listen.

Homes are now being remediated. Homes have been remediated. This scheme, and it is a large scheme, is making a real and positive impact. Even in the actions we took today at Cabinet, we are showing an ongoing willingness to listen and to try to respond as best we can. The scheme is open and applications are coming in. I hope this will at last make a real and meaningful difference to many families.

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