Lynn Boylan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

There is a lot of focus in the media this morning, rightly, on the mica redress scheme and the sliding scale. According to a Fine Gael Deputy on RTÉ Radio 1 this morning, even the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, accepts it is a flawed scheme, despite the same Minister bringing it to Cabinet this week and announcing the details yesterday. Make of that what you will.

I call on the Minister to make a statement as to when we will see the report of the working group on latent defects. This morning, families throughout Dublin are waking up in homes with Celtic tiger defects, such as fire safety issues and water ingress. We were supposed to see a draft redress scheme in June this year in order that it could be considered in time to make proposals on its funding in the budget. Here we are on 1 December and there is still no sign of the findings of that working group or of the draft scheme. Fire safety defects and water ingress, just like mica, are a legacy of the light touch developer-led regulations we have seen from previous Governments. People who bought their homes in good faith are either already significantly out of pocket or are living in substandard homes through no fault of their own.

We need to urgently hear from the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage about when that working group will produce the draft redress scheme in order that we can ensure that families who are living with the legacy of Fianna Fáil light touch self-regulation will be refunded and given the homes they deserve and have paid for.