Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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We have a humanitarian crisis in Donegal and the west of Ireland. Families are living in homes that are crumbling around them. They are in dangerous homes this winter. However, one would not know it in this Government because not only is the Minister not here, he has two Ministers of State in his Department, but not a single one bothered to show up to listen to appeals from three democratically elected representatives of the people here tonight. We are united together to make the case for families in the west of Ireland living in crumbling homes. They cannot find temporary accommodation to move into. They are stuck in a logjam in a scheme whereby they cannot get access to funding, even if they could get temporary accommodation. I have asked the Minister to task the Housing Agency and local authorities in Donegal, Mayo, Clare and Limerick with assisting families in finding temporary accommodation and consider modular housing. No action has been taken. There is no show tonight. It is absolutely shameful.

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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In July, I visited the home of Sharon Moss in Letterkenny, along with my colleagues, Deputies Mac Lochlainn and Doherty. Sharon's home is one of the worst defective block homes I have been in. The walls are crumbling and half of the house cannot be occupied. One would have to be there to experience the smell of damp and rot throughout the house. One would not allow a rat to live in a property like it. Sharon has applied for the defective blocks scheme. She is one of the 500 or so applications from Donegal, Mayo and other counties that are stuck. The problem is that she is facing into a very bleak winter, living in a property that was not fit for human habitation in the summer months. In the winter months, it is an enormous problem. While the Department is working on the new regulations for the enhanced scheme, which we will deal with when it comes forward, right now families desperately need emergency intervention in Donegal, Mayo, Clare, Tipperary, Sligo and elsewhere. While I know it is not the Minister of State's Department, I implore him to listen to the three Deputies here, and go back to the line Minister responsible and urge him to get local authorities and the Housing Agency involved in order to provide some temporary relief for these families while they are waiting for the long promised and overdue enhanced scheme.

Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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Homeowners across Mayo are concerned about their energy bills. Can the Minister of State imagine what it is like for homeowners trying to heat homes where cracks are coming down the walls and the wind is blowing through them? People have astronomical bills, on top of what they already have to deal with, yet many are locked out of the scheme because they cannot afford to go onto the next stages. I spoke to a woman in Westport last week. On top of having paid for a test to be in the first stage, an engineer is now demanding €11,000 in order for her to proceed to the next stage. It is unaffordable for many people. People are stuck in this situation. Each winter, people face into the summer and think by this winter they will have a solution, yet homeowners across Mayo find they are facing into another winter and are still on their own. They still do not have a scheme that is fit for purpose. They have submitted a number of questions on the progress on regulations, when they will be shared with homeowners and what assessment has been completed on the damaged thresholds. There are too many loose ends in the scheme that need to be tied up. As Deputy Mac Lochlainn correctly said, the Minister or one of the Ministers of State in the Department should be here to answer these questions.

Frank Feighan (Sligo-Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputies for raising this matter and for the opportunity to provide an update on behalf of the Minister and the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. As Deputies know, following the decision of the Government on 30 November 2021 in respect of the enhanced defective concrete blocks grant scheme, the Government approved the Remediation of Dwellings Damaged By the Use of Defective Concrete Blocks Bill 2022 on 21 June. The Bill passed both Houses of the Oireachtas and was subsequently signed into law by the President on 23 July 2022. The Act includes significant improvements to the current scheme and several enhancements.

The maximum grant cap for grant assistance under the scheme has been increased from €247,500 to €420,000. The current 90% maximum grant was increased to a 100% grant for all remediation options 1 to 5, subject to the overall cap in grant rates. Exempt development status has been provided for on a like-for-like basis. There is the provision of a Government guarantee on remediation works, other than the full demolition and rebuild through eligibility for a second grant, if required, for a period of 40 years. Alternative accommodation, storage costs and immediate repair works to a maximum value of €25,000 within the overall grant cap have been included.

The Housing Agency will play a key role under the scheme by taking on the financial cost of testing and assessing homes and determining, on behalf of local authorities, the appropriate remediation option and grant rate for each dwelling. The scheme has been extended to Clare, Limerick and other counties, as required. A new independent appeals process has been introduced. As an interim measure, significant improvements were made to the existing grant scheme in February 2022 by way of SI 85 of 2022, which includes a provision for the inclusion as an allowable cost of essential remediation immediate repair works up to a value of €5,555 and relates to the structural stability of any part of the home affected by defective concrete blocks. This funding for immediate repairs is available now and will also be available under the enhanced grant scheme upon its commencement.

Regarding alternative temporary accommodation, it should be noted that the enhanced grand scheme includes provision for €15,000 to be made available to affected homeowners to assist in temporary accommodation. Donegal County Council sought approval from the Department for two facilitator posts in Donegal to support homeowners through the defective concrete blocks, DCB, process. The role of facilitators will include guiding homeowners through the DCB application process and facilitating the homeowner to access all other relevant support services, including options for alternative accommodation or storage. I want to confirm that a letter of approval supporting the post of facilitators to assist homeowners through an enhanced DCB grant scheme has been issued and work on drafting the necessary regulations has commenced with the intention of having the enhanced scheme ready for application early in the new year.

Deputy Mac Lochlainn referred to modular housing. I will bring that proposal to the Minister in the Department. On Sharon Moss's house in Letterkenny, it is hugely worrying and disappointing. I am glad Deputy Conway-Walsh raised her case in the Dáil today. Emergency interventions on behalf of local authorities were mentioned, as well as the assistance homeowners need in order to move to the next stage. There are some difficulties. It may be we will be able to iron out these difficulties by working together. I will bring the concerns of the Deputies back to the Minister and I thank them for raising this very difficult and necessary Topical Issue.

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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I appreciate the Minister of State is reading the response from the Department and Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy O'Brien, but it is disappointing to hear it.

Clearly, whoever wrote this, including the Minister, who signed off on it, does not understand what is happening in the counties we are talking about in the west. Right now, as we speak, people are living in homes that are not fit for human habitation. They do not have access to the €15,000 because they are not through stage 1 of the scheme. Why? They are not through stage 1 because they are caught in a quagmire. It is bureaucracy and failure by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. They cannot access €15,000 and, even if they could, it is very hard to find alternative accommodation.

This is a humanitarian crisis. The Minister should have been here tonight. He needs to read this transcript, urgently. He needs to come up to Donegal and visit some of these houses and see for himself what we are talking about. These people should not be in these homes this winter. They need accommodation urgently and I am asking that he look especially at high-quality, modular housing located throughout the county. It needs to happen now.

Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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The Minister needs to come to Mayo. He needs to talk to these homeowners. They are absolutely sick and tired of the scheme being presented as if somehow it is being gifted to them by the Government. What is forgotten in all of this is that these people have been failed time and again. They have been failed in the very beginning by the light regulation and in how they have been exposed to the injustices they have suffered under this scheme. It needs to be fixed once and for all.

These people never wanted to access this scheme. All they wanted was their original homes and now they find themselves in a situation, time and again, where they are continually let down by this Government. I know it was not the Minister of State's Government. I know the Fianna Fáil Government was at the behest of the builders and the people who are responsible for this but it has to be fixed.

Frank Feighan (Sligo-Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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I take on board the Deputies' concerns and the fact they are calling for high-quality, modular housing to be located in Donegal and probably other countries. I will certainly bring those concerns and the proposal that he visit back to the Minister. The purpose of the Remediation of Dwellings Damaged By the Use of Defective Concrete Blocks Act 2022 is to implement and give legislative underpinning to a series of measures to approve and enhance the defective concrete blocks, DCB, scheme, as agreed by the Government on 13 November 2021. This improvement includes a 100% grant subject to an overall maximum grant of €420,000.

Officials from the Department have been in ongoing engagement with Donegal County Council, especially on the implementation of the scheme and have recently approved the role of two facilitators to assist and it is hoped those facilitators will be able to get in there. The Deputies could give those names and addresses and we could try to note them and iron out the difficulties the Deputies have outlined.

Ongoing engagement also continues between the homeowners and the Minister's nominated homeowner liaison, Mr. John O'Connor, and the Department as to the designed implementation of the new scheme. Legislation is being progressed. Earlier this month, the Department published a comprehensive and updated the Your Questions Answered document on its website to ensure homeowners have the most up-to-date information available to them.

We will continue to work on the regulations that underpin the enhanced scheme in order to have it up and running as early as possible. I am sure, in some situations, there will be anomalies and difficulties and sometimes it is not perfect. The Deputies are here tonight to raise these concerns. I will bring the concerns back to the Minister and if the Deputies wish to send me an email about the difficulties, I will send that on to the Minister as quickly as possible.