Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

In respect of Donegal County Council and the specific issue the Deputy raised, which has just come into the public domain, I will ask the Minister to revert to him and to engage with the local authority. I take the point about not wishing to see any further slippage and the importance of adhering to timelines, and I will certainly keep a very close eye on that.

I think we have a bit of balance in regard to this. I can only imagine the frustration, the stress, the sheer trauma that people must be living with if their own home is crumbling in front of their eyes, and the concerns they would have for their children, their parents and the well-being of their family. I get that, but it is important to acknowledge that the State has put in place a massive level of financial resource to try to respond to this. We are, in real time, continuing to engage and make improvements where we can. The Deputy raised the issue of childcare, for example, previously and I gave him the position of the Government in respect of line Departments trying to respond to that.

Even today, the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, brought a memo to the Government to increase the current scheme cap for remediation options and ancillary grants by the maximum allowed. The memo also requested an increase in the grant rates under the scheme. Extending these increases to wider groups of relevant owners requires amending the 2022 Act, and the Minister will bring a separate proposal to the Government to give effect to this policy intention in order that the increases can apply retrospectively. Even today, therefore, we are seeing more proposals at Government to try to make further improvements to respond to the issues we are hearing from people in the Deputy’s constituency.

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