Averil Power (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I second the comments made by Senator Darragh O'Brien. I have received many representations from individuals who had to carry out the work before the scheme was put in place. It was not necessarily that they could afford to undertake this work but some found themselves in a situation where they had no choice, given that the houses were so badly damaged. I received representations from young couples who remortgaged their properties and took out loans to do this work and from elderly people who dipped into their life savings to do it. This was not easy. Many ended up in further hardship as a result but they had to do the work because they could not wait and they were not sure when, or if, a scheme would be put in place. When I raised this issue with the Minister on an Adjournment debate after the fund was announced, he said that in such circumstances people should go after their developers. As the Minister is aware, unfortunately for many of those involved, the developers have since gone out of business so they are not able to recover it and even for those who had been fortunate to get money from developers' insurance funds, in many cases they would not refund the cost of the pyrite test which is €3,000 or €4,000.

While I welcome the scheme and commend the Minister for bringing it forward - it will be positive for those who can benefit from it - it is unfair to exclude those who have already had to pay out this money, which they could not afford, and have had to take on additional liabilities in order to get the work done. That they should be affected by a crude cut-off date is unfair. Therefore, I urge the Minister to look at it again and as Senator Darragh O'Brien said, if necessary, find a creative way around the scheme to make it fair.