John Cummins (Waterford, Fine Gael)

Owners and renters deserve better. There is no question that these properties should not have been built to the standard that they were. They should have been built to a higher standard; that is a given. That is why the Government has committed to putting a significant remediation scheme in place to support the owners and renters in those properties to improve them and bring them up to an acceptable standard.

The Minister, Deputy Browne, has continually met with stakeholders in this area. He is committed to progressing the overall legislation that will provide for this. As I mentioned, officials were before the Oireachtas joint committee recently. We have to get this right, however, and owner management companies are a critical component of this. If we are to invest significant sums of taxpayers' money in remediating these properties, we have to ensure there is effective governance in place in all those complexes. The last thing we want to see is money being poured into something and for it either not to be improved to the level it needs to be or to be misused in some other way. This money, which is taxpayers' money, will be ring-fenced to improve apartments and duplexes that were impacted between 1991 and 2013. The report in 2022 estimated that up to 100,000 units could be impacted, not just in Dublin but right across the country. We therefore have to get this right, and I am sure all Members will contribute to that.

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