Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

During the Second Stage debate many Senators made the case that this should not be an open-ended scheme which will put a significant burden of cost on the taxpayer.

I have confined it to a scheme of last resort to home owners and people in apartments. Those who are in commercial properties have contracts of works with their building contractor or have other means such as suing the contractor if the work is defective. As Senator Power said earlier, the contractor who built homes may have gone out of business so the situation for the home owners is different from that of commercial properties.

I must confine the scheme in the interest of the taxpayer at a time of finite resources.