Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will now address amendment No. 37. Retrospective application of benefits of the enhanced scheme will apply to applicants under the current scheme. Retrospectively including homes which were remediated before the grant scheme and the IS 465 standard would, if it was introduced, be extremely complex. It is genuinely not clear how many such homes are in this situation. In the absence of the IS 465 standard it is not clear what analysis was carried out on those homes before they were remediated or on what basis the remediation option which was carried out was grounded. We do not know if there are any in this position or to what standard any works were actually done or who took the decision to do those works. I am not talking about the emergency works piece to which Senator Dooley referred. We have an additional grant there for shoring-up work and that type of thing. This really refers to homes that have been remediated but what I would say is such homeowners would be eligible if they say they did a remediation job. I do not know if any have done a full remediation to be honest. If the Senator knows, he certainly should let me know because we have not been able to quantify that. Such homeowners would be eligible to apply for a grant under the current or enhanced scheme in respect of any additional works which may be required to the home arising from damage associated with the use of defective concrete blocks in its construction. It is standard practice with grant schemes that work carried out prior to the grant scheme being put in place or prior to an application having been made would not be eligible for funding. However they would be able to reapply back into the scheme but we have no sense of any full remediations, who did the work - not who decided because obviously if it was done, the homeowner may have in good faith decided to - but who did the work and to what standard, were they qualified to do the work, all of those things. We have an additional grant in the new scheme for cases where shoring-up work has been done to keep a home safe. We have received applications for that as well. I take it in this instance that where a home is not fully remediated and some emergency works were done, that home would still be able to come in to the enhanced scheme. Therefore I am not accepting the amendment.