Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the House. I have visited people in County Clare whose homes are affected by pyrite. They are decent, honest and hard-working people. Some of them do not have their homes that long. Others have had their homes for quite some time and are on the verge of retirement. They have found themselves in a situation in which their homes are disintegrating around them. They are not in the middle of this crisis and media storm by choice. They are ordinary, decent people who just want to get on with their lives. I know the Minister has visited homes in Clare, so he knows exactly what I am talking about.

Yes, the legislation before us will be very expensive and it is a significant improvement on other presentations of legislation in the past. I understand clearly that it is not what everybody wants, but we in this Chamber and those in the Dáil can alter and amend legislation, if we find that it is clearly not working. I wish to see the scheme rolled out very efficiently and quickly, with little red tape, and boots on the ground in the counties affected to ensure people can be assessed and dealt with quickly. The last thing we want is to see a scheme surrounded and pulled down by bureaucracy. We have seen it time and again with schemes in this country. We cannot let that happen, because time is of the essence. This has gone on too long and we cannot delay it any further.

However, if unintended situations happen during that initiation period, I ask that the Minister be prepared and open-minded enough to come in with amending legislation to deal with it, because we have the power in this House to legislate, but we also have the power to amend legislation and that is not a bad thing. It is important that legislation evolves and is reflective of a particular situation, because there are unintended consequences in many areas. I have no doubt about and would not question for one minute the sincerity of the Minister in this and with the best will in the world, there may be elements of the legislation that do not and cannot work in practice, for whatever reason. In that situation, we have to have the courage of our convictions to amend.