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

First, I reject any assertion there have been delays in bringing this forward. We want to make sure the interim fire defects scheme works for people and residents. That is why I have engaged personally with literally hundreds of residents and their representative groups on this issue. The legislation we agreed yesterday is very important too. It will go to the Oireachtas joint committee in the next Oireachtas. That is one thing on which we differed. Deputy Ó Broin wanted to piggyback on the higher remediation scheme but we now have a new scheme in place. Obviously, the main scheme deals with structural defects, water ingress and fire safety. Fire safety is first based on the fact that they are defects from the time of construction. We have come across maintenance issues. This is why the pathfinder projects are good. In the context where a unit or multi-unit development cannot pay for some fire safety works that relate to maintenance, we are looking at a mechanism to assist them with that and for there to be a potential clawback. The principle has been agreed that this relates to defects at the time of building, not a lack of maintenance. We are working through that.

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