Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Taoiseach outlined the process whereby IS 465 is going to be amended. No doubt it is going to be extremely slow. Already in his response, he outlined that it was to be published in quarter 3 but now it is quarter 4. Who is to say it is not going to be quarter 1 or 2 of next year? Homeowners are going to be suffering on under this existing scheme for a long time and for the foreseeable future. We have no clarity on when this is actually going to happen. In the meantime, Donegal County Council has altered the results that have come through from the Housing Agency on the website as well, which is not on and should not be happening.

This is further undermining people's confidence in this scheme. We have also seen over the past couple months that the Attorney General has written to the Minister for housing advising him that the purpose of the scheme was to save the State money, rather than deal with defective blocks and defective households. The purpose of the whole scheme seems to be to save the State money, whereas it is the State that caused this problem in the first place. By its lax oversight of the building and construction industry, the State caused this problem by allowing defective blocks to go into the process.

The State needs to step up quickly. I urge the Taoiseach to ensure the amendments will be put through straightaway, rather than wait for months and months to begin that as well.

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