Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal, Sinn Fein)

I will continue for one more minute with the forbearance of my colleague.

What is the issue with these incrementalist amendments? The issue is the Government is still excluding people. It put a date of March 2029. It was bad enough the Government took over a year but now it is excluding dozens of families. It is so cruel. They will be out tens of thousands of euro. Why did the Government put the date of 29 March 2024 to coincide with the publication of the SCSI report? That does not stand up because that report would have looked at costings into 2023. I ask the Minister not to be cruel and not to exclude dozens of families who are desperately waiting on this money. They are panicking that this will not be conceded by the Minister. Please concede our point. We will, of course, put in amendments.

Finally, there is the semi-detached issue. For a holiday home owner, for someone who owns more than one rental property and for most people who cannot afford to go through the scheme, that semi-detached building will still stand. They will still be knocking down semi-detached buildings. This is madness. Any builder or engineer would ask what the Minister is playing at here.

I ask the Minister to please listen to those of us who are on the ground in the west of Ireland and to do what is right and fair. He knows this is wrong. I ask him to please stop it, confront his officials and do what is right.

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