Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. I know it is very close to his heart and an issue largely upon which he was elected. I appreciate and understand fully where he is coming from. He has raised it on consistent occasions in the House. As he knows, the Minister, Deputy James Browne, met with various stakeholders in Donegal in May of this year, including representatives from the Mica Action Group along with a large number of Donegal county councillors and senior management of Donegal County Council.

Each group raised important issues, including the need to extend the eligibility of the cap and rate increase to a larger group of homeowners. Through these series of meetings, which lasted six to seven hours in total, the Minister saw at first hand the real difficulties defective concrete block homeowners are facing through no fault of their own. The scheme is important in that regard. Government has committed to this. The Minister will continue to engage, following up those meetings with the groups. There are complex issues around this.

We have allocated a significant amount of money. About €2.2 billion is the estimate of what this scheme will cost. Interestingly, 2025 funding has increased by over 50%, from €45 million to €70 million. In other words, there will be €70 million spent this year as opposed to €45 million last year because the scheme is ramping up. Sufficient additional funding is now required to meet the demand for those who are participating in the scheme. We want to meet homeowners' needs in an efficient and effective way. At the moment, there are about 2,600 homeowners at various stages of the scheme.

I will ask the Minister about some of the issues Deputy Ward has raised, for example, delayed payments. That should not be the case. We need a bit more consistent data in terms of the overall scheme. There are a lot of anecdotal stories. I am not saying they are wrong but I am just saying a lot of this is anecdotal at the moment. We need to develop consistent data in respect of this.

The grant rates were set, and increased in 2024 again, based on expert advice at a level to ensure homeowners get the money they need to put their homes right. In order to ensure the grant scheme follows the most up-to-date science, changes were made to the scheme late last year to take account of the most recent research.

There is forthcoming legislation which will make amendments to the grant scheme to allow these changes to be implemented by the administrators of the grant scheme - the local authorities themselves. As the Deputy knows, in March the NSAI commenced the public consultation period of the revised draft of IS465.

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