James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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I move:

That Dáil Éireann approves the following Order in draft: Remediation of Dwellings Damaged by the Use of Defective Concrete Blocks Act 2022 (Designation of Fingal and Wexford County Councils) (Parts of Administrative Areas) Order 2026, a copy of which has been laid in draft form before Dáil Éireann on 12th March, 2026.

I welcome the opportunity today to outline for Members the motion to designate parts of the administrative areas of Fingal County Council and Wexford County Council under the Remediation of Dwellings Damaged by the Use of Defective Concrete Blocks Act 2022. During my time as Minister, I have had the opportunity to meet with many people whom the defective concrete blocks, DCB, issue affects. I have listened to their concerns directly, as well as to the issues raised by local representatives and advocacy groups on this matter. I am very much aware that while the nexus of the DCB issue is concentrated in the north west of the country, it also affects, unfortunately, numbers of houses in other parts of Ireland. Wherever it does, the Government stands ready to offer financial assistance to help people fix their homes and help them move on with their lives. It is for that reason that I am here this evening to put forward this motion which will extend the hand of assistance under the defective concrete blocks scheme to parts of two more local authorities, namely, Fingal and Wexford.

The number of homes affected in both administrative areas is thankfully relatively low. While mindful of the cost involved and our responsibility to ensure taxpayer funding is appropriately spent, this Government remains committed to flexibility and fairness when it comes to dealing with the situation faced by those affected by defective concrete blocks. Section 5 of the 2022 defective concrete blocks Act provides a mechanism whereby if additional local authorities believe homes in their functional area have been damaged by defective concrete blocks, they can request inclusion in the scheme via the established mechanisms. This statutory designation process can commence following a request by a local authority, or by me as the Minister, to the Housing Agency. The Housing Agency then conducts technical testing of dwellings in each local authority administrative area. As soon as practicable after the completion of any testing, the Housing Agency makes a recommendation to me as Minister on whether an order to designate the whole or part of a local authority's administrative area should or should not be made by the Government.

Both Fingal County Council and Wexford County Council, along with the Housing Agency, have now completed this process. The Housing Agency provided me with detailed reports and laboratory test results confirming the Housing Agency’s recommendation to me that an order be made under section 5(9) of the Act designating a part of Fingal County Council's and Wexford County Council's administrative areas as being covered by the DCB scheme. The areas covered in Fingal are Ballyboughal, Lusk, Rush and Skerries and total 39 dwellings. The areas covered in Wexford cover Bunclody and Enniscorthy, with one dwelling in each location. Damage to dwellings within both administrative areas confirms there are dwellings exhibiting the typical defects as identified in the standard that underpins the DCB scheme, IS 465. Some of the typical defects encountered include disintegrated blocks and pattern-like cracking. The damage is evident to dwellings at various different locations across the local authority areas.

Looking briefly to the past, Deputies will recall that the first defective concrete blocks grant scheme, often referred to as the 90-10 scheme, came into effect in January 2020 and included counties Donegal and Mayo. Building on the work of that scheme, the Government approved the Remediation of Dwellings Damaged by the Use of Defective Concrete Blocks Bill 2022 on 21 June. The Bill passed through both Houses of the Oireachtas and was subsequently signed into law by the President on 23 July 2022. This current scheme included an unprecedented suite of improvements and I believe it still represents the largest state intervention in addressing defective concrete buildings anywhere in the world, with the scheme estimated to cost approximately €2.2 billion, excluding inflation. Changes introduced by the original legislation include a Government guarantee in regard to remediation works other than full demolition and rebuild through eligibility for a second grant, if required, for a period of 40 years; provision of alternative accommodation costs, storage costs and immediate repairs; a key role for the Housing Agency; the extension of the scheme to Clare and Limerick; the introduction of an appeals panel; and the increased scheme cap and grant rates. In 2024, the grant scheme cap was increased again by the maximum permitted of 10% to €462,000, along with an increase in the scheme grants rates. Sligo County Council also became the fifth area to be designated under the scheme in 2024.

I now propose to add parts of the administrative areas of Fingal and Wexford local authorities under the scheme. The designation brought forward today aims to further improve access to the grant scheme for impacted homeowners in these areas. I believe the designation will go a long way to address the needs raised by the homeowners in their correspondence with my Department. The draft motion today follows on from the recent DCB amendment Act 2025, which was passed by both Houses of the Oireachtas in December last. Deputies will recall some of the main provisions of that Act which will also assist homeowners in the newly designated areas of Fingal and Wexford. The Act widened the group of relevant owners who can avail of the recent increases in the grant scheme cap and rates. It also extended the time within which homeowners can complete the works to their houses. These necessary changes were as a direct result of the continuous engagement by my Department and the local authority sector with homeowners. It illustrates our commitment to continuous engagement and improvement when it comes to this significant scheme.

The memo for Government on the general scheme for the DCB Bill in June 2022 noted the cost estimate for the scheme as €2.2 billion, excluding inflation. Provision was made within the cost estimate for the homes thought to be impacted and eligible for grant assistance within the counties of Donegal and Mayo and the likely number of impacted homes if the scheme were to be extended to counties Clare, Limerick, Sligo and Tipperary. Given the possibility that the spread of impacted homes could be wider than these six counties ,and to be prudent, an additional 1,100 homes are included in the overall 7,500 estimate of the number of homes expected to be eligible for grant assistance, which informs the estimate. My Department keeps all aspects of the scheme under continuous review and I am conscious that since this estimate was made, new information has come to light from the local authority sector and others that means this costing has to be looked at again. This process is in progress now within the Department.

The cost implications of the inclusion of Fingal and Wexford is based on the reports I have received and is difficult to estimate with a high degree of accuracy. However, based on the average cost of remediation under the scheme currently - albeit in different and lower-cost areas of the country - and the likely number of dwellings affected, an approximate cost of €15.5 million is predicted. It is important to note that this will be incurred over a number of years so the cost in any one year will, in the context of the overall scheme cost, be minimal and will not involve any additional requests for funding from the Department of Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation at this time.

I will conclude for now by saying that while I am satisfied that the scheme is delivering for many homeowners in affected counties, with more than €235 million spent on the scheme to date, I remain acutely aware that it needs be closely monitored and changed as our experience and knowledge of this complex issue develops. The motion to extend the scheme to more affected areas is reflective of this commitment. This motion, if passed, will bring the total number of counties designated under the scheme to seven. It builds on the Government funding for DCB work that continues to be provided as and when required on an annual basis, with a record €175 million allocated to fund the scheme in 2026.

I have met with various stakeholders throughout my time as Minister, including representatives from action groups, along with a large number of county councillors, from all parties and none, and senior management of local authorities. Each group raised important matters including the need to extend the eligibility of the scheme to more administrative areas. I know that many adjustments, such as this designation, are essential interventions. I place on record my appreciation for the collaboration we have had to this stage with members of the local authorities in assisting us in progressing this as it is urgently required. I want to ensure that homeowners receive the help that they need. I believe today’s motion is another key step in further assisting homeowners and, with the support of the Houses, I hope to have this progressed very shortly. I look forward to hearing the contributions from Deputies on this matter.

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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While I welcome the inclusion of these two counties, it has to be said that the scheme is not fit for purpose. It has been in operation for six years and fewer than 500 homes have been mediated. Despite the Minister's comment to the effect that so-called significant changes were made to the scheme to improve in 2022, fewer families in Donegal and Mayo have applied for the scheme under the new rules rather than the old. It is not 100% and it is not 80%. In fact, tens of thousands of euro are required by homeowners. Stage payments are not available and the processing is far too slow. The underpinning statutory instrument is still not based on the science and not a single social home in any county has been included in any scheme.

This scheme is not fit for purpose. It is an insult to families affected for the Minister to say that he is listening. He is not. We are not opposing the motion but we will continue to demand that the Minister change the scheme to do what the Government promised six years ago, namely 100% redress for all of those affected. That is not available today, either to folks already in the scheme or included in it. Until that changes, we will continue to campaign for further reforms.

Fionntán Ó Súilleabháin (Wicklow-Wexford, Sinn Fein)
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I welcome the inclusion of County Wexford in the scheme for homes affected by defective blocks, which are unmortgageable, uninsurable and unsellable. I was on Wexford County Council in 2022 when a motion was passed in light of concerns raised by people in the areas of Bunclody and Ferns. Sean and Rachel Murphy first noticed small cracks in their brand-new homes near Ferns six months after they moved in 19 years ago. Due to the nature of mica, it took a few more years for them to realise the scale of the problem. Sean says it is almost like an earthquake took place underneath the house. Another victim noted that on seeing the report, an official commented that the house was pretty much made with river mud.

These blocks were made by an unregulated concrete industry and passed off as meeting EU quality standards. I advise homeowners who suspect that they have defective blocks to engage with Wexford County Council and, potentially, to seek independent advice as they can be very difficult to detect. I reiterate Deputy Ó Broin's points that we need 100% redress. Nothing less than that will do.

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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Constituents of mine who live in Rush, Lusk, Skerries and Ballyboghil will welcome this news. The Minister referred to 39 dwellings, but I would say 39 families. Those families have been to hell and back while their homes have crumbled down around their ears. They did nothing wrong. The Minister was full of praise for the local authorities, and that is fair enough, but there should be some recognition of the people who are impacted today and who will be joining the scheme, defective and all as it is if we forgive the pun, did nothing wrong. That is why the State is paying. It is not out of the goodness of the Minister's heart or because he has some notion of public service; it is because the State failed to regulate, and because of this these people are deserving of compensation. The scheme must be 100% because that is what people need and deserve. When will my constituents see money from this scheme, because that is what they need?

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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Those of us in the west of Ireland have endured the inequality and injustice of seeing, rightly, 100% redress for 3,000 families in Dublin and north Leinster under the pyrite scheme, but nothing like 100% redress in the west of Ireland. We will now have people on the east coast who are also victims of injustice. We will have people who are victims of injustice and who live miles apart being treated unfairly and unequally. That is utterly wrong. I appeal to the Minister to listen to us. We told him that if he had a scheme like this, builders would bog their arms in and prices would become crazy and unsustainable. What we have now is a cohort of people in their 40s and 50s who might be able to access loans and project manage the work, but most people cannot make the scheme work for them. There is no scheme for social housing or for those who are older and cannot move on. This is terribly wrong, and the Minister is now spreading the inequality and injustice to people on the east coast. It is just getting worse.

Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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The scheme is not fit for purpose. We need 100% redress. Getting the work done is unaffordable for too many people. Particularly in my county of Mayo, the gap between the grant and the rebuilding costs is too big. Defective concrete blocks constitute one of the greatest scandals ever. We need a public inquiry to run in parallel with getting the homes rebuilt. People have to wait months on end just to get a result of the testing. I would say to people not to rebuild their homes without replacing the foundations.

Natasha Newsome Drennan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein)
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I welcome that two new areas are to be included in the scheme. It has been nearly three years since Carlow County Council first requested inclusion in the scheme for homes damaged as a result of the presence of defective concrete blocks. It is six weeks since the Minister finally received the Housing Agency's report, along with its recommendations for the Carlow area. There are only a handful of affected homes in Carlow, but the families involved have been left in limbo as they watch their homes crumble and crack. This report cannot simply sit on the Minister's desk for months on end. We need to see movement on this issue before the summer recess. I ask the Minister to stop stalling and give homeowners a clear and prompt answer. They deserve clarity on whether they will be added to the scheme and a clear timeline for action.

These are not just houses; they represent lives. People's lives are left standing still. People are watching their houses crumble in front of them. Their kids are wondering whether their houses will fall down. They come home from school wondering whether they will still have a house. Mammies and daddies are stressed out of their tree because they do not know how they are going to afford this, what they will tell their children or whether they will be another homeless statistic. It is time to act.

Conor Sheehan (Limerick City, Labour)
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While we very much welcome the inclusion of Wexford and Fingal in the scheme - my colleague Deputy O'Donoghue, who will speak after me, has done a lot of work in this regard - it still does not cover the fundamental issues that exist with the scheme as it stands. While these changes may be necessary, they are still far too incremental. Because of the way the Government has designed it, the scheme has effectively been designed to fail. The fact the Act still requires rigorous case-by-case technical assessment by the Housing Agency to designate a new area delays urgent repairs for homeowners in areas that are awaiting designation. There are also the other issues that, at this stage, have been well aired in the House for many years regarding the fact it is still not 100% redress. There is nothing to cover social housing or childcare facilities. We still have the outstanding issue of the side-by-side rebuilding, which Deputy Ward very eloquently raised on Leaders' Questions earlier.

The scheme is fundamentally unaffordable. Homeowners in counties that have not yet officially been designated face immense stress watching for structural cracks while waiting for their county to be approved. Meanwhile their property, the thing for which they have worked night and day, is devaluing in front of them. We all know that this issue is more widespread than originally feared. That is why we need an end-to-end remediation scheme, as many others have stated in the House over the years. This should be based on the premise of the Fingal pyrite scheme and not this grant scheme, which is inflexible.

How many more times are we going to be here incrementally chipping away at the scheme, adding this county, that county and that local area? Technical amendments to the Bill have failed to fix the core issues. The 2025 amendment Bill missed an important opportunity to address side-by-side rebuilding. The scheme by its nature is far too narrow, exclusionary and limited. Where is the review of IS 465? It has been repeatedly delayed. This is cruel and indefensible, with families stranded in dangerous and defective homes. It is vital that the redress is based on the latest scientific understanding of this crisis and not on flawed data. We also need to see the review of the scheme urgently in July of this year. While more than 3,000 applications were made by the end of last year, only 7% of applicants have completed the necessary work.

Robert O'Donoghue (Dublin Fingal West, Labour)
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I am happy that this motion has been brought forward today. I urge the Minister to progress it without delay. Homeowners in my constituency have waited far too long. In the context of Rush, Lusk, Ballyboghil and Skerries in Dublin Fingal West, I have been dealing with this issue for years, dating back to my time as a councillor. I have submitted numerous parliamentary questions and direct emails to the relevant Ministers. I have met with families and some older homeowners who are living with constant stress and uncertainty as they watch their homes deteriorate before their eyes. These are investment properties, holiday homes and family homes, built on the basis of years of hard work and sacrifice.

Homeowners have found themselves trapped in impossible circumstances with homes crumbling around them. Their homes are effectively unsellable. Many are uninsurable. Yet, the same families continue to face mortgages, bills and liability for property tax in respect of homes that are fundamentally defective. The emotional and financial toll this takes on these families cannot be underestimated. For too long, these families have felt ignored and left behind. They have spent years fighting for recognition and inclusion and simply to be treated fairly.

Today's motion is important, and a necessary step for the affected homeowners in my constituency and in Wexford. However, I must send a clear message that there is an urgency involved. People cannot continue to live in limbo. Every month of delay means more damage, stress and uncertainty for families who have been pushed to the limit. The least we can do is move this process forward as quickly as possible and provide clarity, certainty and support.

I would like to take a second to acknowledge the campaigners in my constituency, many of whom I stood with outside the gates of Leinster House at the start of this year. These homeowners never gave up hope despite the frustration and delays they faced. They continued to engage by means of Zoom meetings that I organised, stayed connected through WhatsApp groups and consistently informed and supported each other throughout their campaign for action and recognition. Their persistence and determination brought us to this point. I thank them very much for that.

I support this motion. The homeowners I deal with have made one thing abundantly clear to me. They want the remediation process to be delivered as quickly, fairly and efficiently as possible. They also want assurances that rapidly rising construction costs will be fully taken into consideration in order that families will not left out of pocket while trying to rebuild both their homes and their lives. They have waited long enough. This is the ask that came through to me from four or five of them this afternoon. They want a timeline regarding when they can apply to Fingal County Council and when they can avail of this scheme.

Rory Hearne (Dublin North-West, Social Democrats)
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I support both the motion and what has been put forward. However, there is a need to raise certain issues in relation to the scheme. There are limitations to the scheme, and a number of questions remain to be asked, specifically in respect of the take-up and why only 435 houses that were built using defective blocks, or around 13% of 3,500 homes, have had the remediation work completed. Why has there been such a low level of take-up six years on? We need that question to be answered. At that rate, it will be many decades before this issue is dealt with and before people will be able to live in safe and secure homes.

The matter of defective blocks and pyrite, pyrrhotite and other issues has caused huge misery among people across the country. It was the lax regulation and hands-off approach of successive Governments that allowed cowboy developers to wreak havoc on communities. Of course, it is Fianna Fáil's long and close relationship with developers that has left us with this situation. Today, the cowboys still face no consequences. What are Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael afraid of when it comes to accountability? Why has no one been held to account? We are going to spend billions of euro of public money picking up the pieces, helping people to rebuild their homes, but who will be held to account? That is a serious question, and we need to have it answered because significant amounts of public money are essentially covering up and dealing with the consequences of the failure of the lax regulation and actions on the part of quarry owners and others who were involved. The Government needs to take action in that regard.

Of course, we also know that the people who are in these homes face the insecurity that many others face, namely where they will go when their houses are being remediated. We have huge numbers of homeless people. We also have huge numbers on housing waiting lists, particularly in the counties that are affected. Where will people go and what will be done? We put forward the proposal, which the Government is still ignoring, of a State construction company that could help to rebuild these homes and that could also assist with retrofitting. In that context, we must ask from where the workers are going to come. From where are the private builders who are going to build these homes going to come ? That is why we should have local construction and State construction companies building homes and helping us get through this emergency. That is what is actually needed, but, unfortunately, Fianna Fáil's and Fine Gael's short-term vision in respect of all of this means that they fail to put in place long-term solutions.

Charles Ward (Donegal, 100% Redress Party)
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I support the inclusion of Fingal and Wexford in the defective concrete scheme. This motion exposes how the scheme is being delivered on the ground. Delivery is still happening in stages. Counties and areas are added one by one, often after long preparatory work has already been completed. This creates delay that is built into the system rather than delay caused by chance. The delay is shown in how slowly the scheme becomes available and how we are separating the tendering and designation processes for each county. The gap has not been occasional. It has been consistent throughout this whole scheme. I am not speaking from distance. My home is within the scheme, and I have been caught in the scheme for six years. Freedom of information material has come to light which shows that there is a very clear framework for chartered engineers who were not just planning the theory but were also actively being put in place for multiple counties from 2024 to 2025. This is significant because it shows that preparation is happening in advance. However, there is significant delay before preparation is turned into delivery. As the system prepares to deliver, families wait for years and the preparation translates into action on the ground, but the gap is now defining and the scheme is experiencing significant delays.

As the Minister is aware, the pyrite remediation scheme provided true 100% redress. This scheme does not. The financial pressures emerging within the scheme are clear. The gap is already leading to shortfalls in County Donegal. That is happening now; it is not something that might happen in the future. These pressures will not stay in one area and they are likely to become very significantly troublesome in the areas of Fingal. This is what the current experience in Donegal is showing us.

There are practical barriers within the scheme that affect whether homes can be built, even after approval. People are dealing with sequences of work, managing multiple-stage construction and coming to terms with how to fund the works upfront even before they begin, and their shortfalls are significant. Approval does not always mean progress on the ground. Only a few hundred homes have been fully completed under the scheme so far and some of those are remediation works. The scheme will run until 2037. At the current pace of delivery, that date does not reassure families. It shows how slowly homes are actually being completed.

As more areas are added, the pattern becomes clearer. This is not because the problem is new but because the system has not changed. What exists is a process that prepares and pauses and then releases in stages rather than a system that moves smoothly, with readiness, to completion. The issue is not whether Fingal and Wexford should be included; of course they should be included. The issue is why inclusion requires repeated administrative steps when the groundwork for delivery has already been done.

In that context, the actual work has to be done. There is no reason for families to be kept waiting. At this point, the real issue is not eligibility; it is the distance between preparation and completion.

The suggestion has been made that those of us with concerns are afraid to enter the scheme. People are waiting. There has been no review of IS 465, and there is apprehension. People who are going into the scheme are out thousands and thousands of euro. People are not raising the issue for political advantage; they are raising it because they are dealing with this in their own counties along with their family and their friends. Families in damaged homes do not need their motives questioned. They need systems to function properly. They want a scheme that works. That is why I will continue to raise this matter, to challenge and to push to ensure that this is delivered at the pace and scale required.

This is not about disagreement within the scheme. This is about whether it will deliver for families, and when will it be rolled out and whether that will happen in stages. There is real apprehension out there with regard to what is happening. We have 3,000 people caught in a scheme, and 300-plus houses completed and 300 more to come. At the rate we are going, it will take decades to rebuild the 3,000 houses. The real number of homes involved in Donegal is, at a bare minimum, between 10,000 and 20,000, because we know the potential for this is there on foot of all the affected materials that came from a certain quarry. The damage threshold might not come through yet, but people are living in houses with plastered up walls that only contain sand. There are no blocks there any more.

The reality is that to this day there is no proper testing of quarries. As we speak, there are defective materials coming onto the market. When we should have scientific laboratories taking samples from every quarry in Donegal and measuring them to make sure that this does not happen again, nothing is happening. The approach to this appears to be "Close your eyes and let us hope things get better".

This is not the fault of the homeowners. The homeowners have done nothing wrong. Anybody in Ireland who is affected by defective concrete has gone through a journey that you would not wish on anybody.

This has been going on 14 years. We have two failed schemes. We are in the middle of a scheme right now under which work on barely 300 houses has been completed. A number of those were the subject of remediation work, which is a patch-up job. The work on these houses will have to be done again. Right now, people are stuck in them. They cannot sell their houses. They cannot move on with their lives. They are stuck in the same way that I am stuck and that everybody else involved is stuck.

We are depending on the Minister to make sure that this scheme, that is coming following the review of IS 465, is done in the proper way. To give him figures in respect of the scheme, I hear from Micheál Martin every time I ask about this that we are spending €250 million. I understand all that, but I also understand that there are tens of thousands of houses to be built. At the current rate, it will take generations to complete the work.

We have to accept that it was Government regulation and quarries that caused this. The latter produced materials that were defective and that were put into blocks that were sold on the market. We need the Minister to acknowledge that, and we need him to put proper protocols and testing in place to make sure this never happens again.

Paul Gogarty (Dublin Mid West, Independent)
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I have contributed to many of these debates because, like many others, I appreciate the hardship that people are going through and because Fingal is situated in my constituency. On the one hand, I welcome that there is a scheme proposed for Fingal, Wexford and other counties in terms of remediation for defective concrete blocks. Piecemeal as it is, as many others have said, I will not be opposing it. However, no more than the rest of it, the scheme is still not fit for purpose. It is not sufficient for people who need help. There are no stage payments. There are a lot more social houses in Fingal compared with places on the western seaboard. I see no reference to these types of dwellings or a specific plan for social housing, because people can be made homeless in those situations as well.

In line with issues raised by my colleague Deputy Charles Ward in relation to Donegal, Mayo and places all along the north-western seaboard, I believe, as others have said, that nothing less than 100% redress will be sufficient. We are talking about people's lives here. I again point out that the Government was asleep at the wheel in terms of ensuring that there was sufficient regulation and that this was enforced. It would be great if the industry could pay for this. When companies do not exist and they cannot pay, the liability unfortunately falls to the State, which failed to regulate. That is disappointing.

I am not an expert, but I heard Deputy Ward refer to defective materials that are still out there. That is something which should not be allowed to affect the lives of more homeowners in any way, shape or form.

Paul Lawless (Mayo, Aontú)
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I very much welcome the fact that the scheme has been extended to Wexford and Dublin. That is a step in the right direction. We in Aontú remain very much of the belief, however, that 100% redress is required. Unfortunately, the scheme does not offer 100% redress.

The scheme has been changed many times since it was first discussed, which is creating a massive amount of confusion. I have heard of cases whereby, incredibly, one semi-detached house may qualify and the one next to it may not. What type of a mess is that? Likewise, I have heard of cases where it is obvious to everyone that half of a property will need to be rectified down the line.

Many homeowners cannot afford to enter the scheme. They cannot afford to pay upfront for the building condition assessments that are required. The fact that there are delays regarding payments - this was particularly the case with the most recent phase of payments - is resulting in some builders having to increase their prices. That is causing major issues for families, and it must be rectified. The instalment payments should not be late. There should be no excuses in that regard.

The idea that there is still no scheme for social housing is a matter of deep concern. There are social houses in Mayo that, as everyone knows, were built using defective concrete blocks. There is no scheme available in respect of those homes. That needs to be rectified. There needs to be a scheme. We need to ensure that local authorities can get on with the business of rectifying the problems with those houses.

This problem was created as a result of either light-touch regulation or no regulation at all. It is clear that the Government was asleep at the wheel in terms of the substances that were coming out of quarries. The result of that is that the State is paying hundreds of millions of euro to rectify the problem. It is quite incredible to think that, with the benefit of hindsight, we have learnt nothing, because the testing done in respect of what is coming out of quarries is completely inadequate. I listened to Deputy Charles Ward make this point eloquently and articulately. It is incredible to think that the Government will not listen. If it did listen to some of the wisdom that is coming from this side of the House, we might protect the future taxpayers of this country. I urge the Minister to consider the collective wisdom of this House and protect those future taxpayers. Houses are being built today, but not enough. The number being built, approximately 30,000 is far below the 50,000 target. However, we know that these houses are being built without the necessary checks being carried out to ensure that they comply with standards. We need better, more robust regulations and testing. Having both would benefit everyone. I urge the Minister to recognise that this should be a lesson. This should be a watershed moment in the context of making sure that the substances in the blocks and concrete that are coming out of quarries will be tested in order to ensure that future taxpayers will be protected. I urge the Minister to listen to logic when he hears it, to move in the direction suggested and to protect future taxpayers.

7 o’clock

No one in this House wants to see people going through the devastation of watching a home crumble. The hardworking people who are paying taxes certainly do not want to see their hard-earned money going to rebuilding houses for a second time.

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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Deputy Boland is sharing with Deputy Malcolm Byrne.

Grace Boland (Dublin Fingal West, Fine Gael)
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I welcome the motion to extend the defective concrete blocks scheme to homes in Fingal. It is an important and overdue step for families who have lived for years with defective materials and the stress and uncertainty that brings. For those households, this offers recognition and a clear pathway to make their homes safe. However, the motion applies only to specific homes already identified and does not address a wider issue of fairness.

For example, in my constituency, Fingal West, two homes on the same street have been affected by the same defect. One family, in 2021, made the responsible decision to remediate their home at their own expense. They took on loans, used savings and acted not just for their safety, but for that of their neighbours and passers-by. Another family, through no fault of their own, were not in a position to act and will now, rightly, qualify for State support. However, the outcome is stark. Families who acted early and responsibly are left carrying the full financial burden, while others in an identical situation will receive assistance.

This creates a two-tier result, based not on the nature of the damage, but on timing and financial capacity. Article 40.1 of the Constitution provides that citizens are to be treated equally and while the State can make distinctions, they must be rational and proportionate. Here, the distinction arises, not from the defect, which is the same, but from the homeowner's ability to act at an earlier point. From a public policy perspective, this approach risks penalising responsible behaviour and sends the wrong signal to homeowners who act early to make their homes safe. This is not about removing supports from anyone. Expanding the scheme is the right decision. However, fairness demands that we also address those who remediated early, so that all affected families are treated equitably.

Malcolm Byrne (Wicklow-Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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I welcome this motion, and particularly the extension of the provisions to two designated areas in County Wexford. I thank the Minister for ensuring this happened and commend the work of the Housing Agency and Wexford County Council that allowed this to happen. The two areas concerned are, as the Minister indicated, in Bunclody and Ballyboy at Ferns. I was in a house in Ballyboy at Ferns. It was a family home of a hardworking and decent family. This is where they wanted to spend their lives. They invested their lives in this home and I could see the cracks in the walls and how the difficulties they faced caused unbelievable anguish to this family. I am conscious this is replicated across the country. These are hardworking, decent people who have contributed to their community, as others have to their communities all over Ireland. They were not at fault. There is still the case of those who sold the defective blocks. In whatever way we can, we need to take action against them, but hardworking and decent families deserve protection and that applies across the country.

I welcome the extension. It has been discovered that these houses have been affected, but I hope the Minister will continue to allow a situation where, if problems are found at some stage in the future as a result of defective blocks in other houses in Wexford or other parts of the country, the scheme can be similarly extended. I thank the Minister for bringing forward this motion. I hope that the families who are affected in Bunclody and Ballyboy outside Ferns can now have some level of security as a result of this and that every support will be made available to them by the Department and the relevant agencies.

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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I thank all Members for their valuable contributions. I welcome the support for the designation of parts of Fingal and County Wexford. I will work with all sides of the House to ensure this decision is now acted on promptly, if supported. I commend the motion to the House and look forward to further engagement on this issue.