Paddy Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Like Senator Blaney, I welcome the scheme in regard to the mica and pyrite issue and I hope it can be finalised. We are close to putting in place a good scheme. I hope that the Minister and all those involved can find a resolution that is suitable to everybody. I note that the Deputy Leader, Senator Chambers, was involved in this and that she is hopeful that we can get a final solution to it.

We should also look at how all of this came about. At the end of the day, the only people who appear to be accountable are politicians. They are the only people to have to resign or they fall. In this case, nobody is accountable. In the case of pyrite and mica anybody has been held accountable. Why were blocks defective and why were there shortcomings in the mix of the concrete? Who was responsible? Was it the manufacturers or the departmental officials and so on? Somebody or some entity is responsible. It appears nobody is responsible and nobody is being held accountable. This is an area that we should look into to identify what happened and to ensure that this does not happen in any of the many schemes that will come on stream. There will be different innovations going forward. This is an issue that we have to get to the root of. I hope that the Government, while currently concentrating on finalising the scheme and bringing it to fruition, will look back to see where the problems arose, how those arose and who was to blame.