Michelle Mulherin (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The scheme is due to go before the Cabinet and I thank the Minister and the Minister of State, Deputy English, for all their work on it. It is important that the scheme be published, that we start tackling the problem and that houses begin to get fixed so that people can know where they stand. Not all of the houses will be done at once.

I have a particular concern. Under the scheme that is available in Leinster, which covers pyritic heave in foundations, no retrospective payments were made to householders. That is a general principle of newly-established schemes. I brought the Minister of State to a house where a couple had needed to put their life savings into it because of a pyrite problem and their roof was in danger of structural collapse. They had a supervising engineer. Within the bounds of vouching that the works have been done and what their cost was, we must find a way of making some contribution. It would be unfortunate were we unable to accommodate such cases in some way. The number involved is not large, as not everyone's house was in so much danger that work had been necessary. In this instance, however, it was. I know of a couple of such cases. Before the scheme is published, this issue should be considered so that the people who fall into this category are accommodated.

I look forward to the Minister's responses to the various issues I have raised.