John Cummins (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

When homeowners were before the Oireachtas joint committee a few weeks ago, this issue was raised. I discussed it with one of witnesses, a gentlemen from Donegal, for quite some time after we concluded the proceedings. I understood the point being made that, on the face of it, in the case of a 120 sq. m home, the State was committing to put redress in place for that figure, so why not allow a homeowner changing to a 90 sq. m. dwelling to avail of the figure relating to 120 sq. m. It was only when I took the issue away and examined it that I came to the conclusion that, although I appreciate the points being made, the difficulty for the State and the Government is that a person who has a 90 sq. m home in the first instance would essentially be getting less to build the home than a person who previously had a home of 120 sq. m. That is where the difficulty arises. It is being done on a square foot basis and that is the challenge. To frame it as there being a penalty is to use the wrong phraseology. What the State is putting in place is a remediation scheme on a square foot basis and, regardless of what a person had previously or decides to build now, he or she is getting the amount of funding required to build a property of that size and get his or her life back on track. While I was happy to engage with the homeowners at the committee, and fully understood the points that were made, the difficulty arises as two householders who, in essence, would be building the same size house would get two different sums in redress. How is that fair?