Rose Conway Walsh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I commend the O'Neill pipe band from Clontibret, County Monaghan, who made history by performing here earlier today at the invitation of Deputy Ó Caoláin, Chairman of the Oireachtas committee on justice and equality. It was a fantastic event and I commend Ms Lorna Sherry, the pipe major, and Peadar Morgan, the founder of the pipe band. Their performance of the Flying Pickets song Only You was absolutely tremendous. The message around Irish Sign Language is that it is a language for everybody and that people are not disabled just because they are deaf. They are a community of people with an unique language and that language is for everybody. I commend them.

Last week, I spoke about pyrite. Many representatives from counties Mayo, Donegal and other areas welcomed the recent announcement on the pyrite remediation scheme. Concern has been expressed, however, about the cost of the proposed testing, as detailed in the protocol. The issue of the defective building materials has been live for many years and I would expect the Government has at least laid the groundwork for the scheme to begin immediately. I have some questions. In the absence of the Minister responsible, may I ask the Leader to pass on the following questions? Will every house have to carry out the testing? Who will pay for the testing and for the engineer's report? The cost of the test, depending on the number of cores, may be more than €8,000. Based on the number of attendees that were at a recent course, are there enough engineers available to carry out the surveys that are required? If one house in an estate that was supplied with the same building materials is deemed to have pyrite, will all of the houses have to be surveyed and tested in detail or would it be enough to know from the characteristics of the other houses that they also are affected by pyrite? Are there sufficient laboratories available to carry out the required suite of testing that is needed? Is there any official register of the complaints to date from counties Mayo and Donegal and who will establish such a register? When will the procedure be available for the applicants and who will certify the payment of that? What role will local authorities have and what input will they have into the schemes? Will contractors be approved for such remedial works that may be required? Will priority be given to the most seriously affected houses? We need an urgent debate on the issue of pyrite because people are really fearful for their houses. We welcome the announcement of the funding but we need to know that the can will not be kicked down the road again. People are desperate for answers to these questions. I ask the Leader to put these questions to the Minister and relay the response to the House.