Mary Seery Kearney (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I want to begin by welcoming Odette and Sam Doran to the Gallery. They are leading activists in the campaign called Not Our Fault, which is the group of residents who are affected by apartment defects and are waiting on the Government's scheme. I have spoken a number of times on this issue and have asked that we have statements in the House.

The decision has already been made by the Government in response to the probability that more than 100,000 apartments throughout the country are affected by apartment defects. The decision is made for us to have a remediation scheme. The €2.5 billion is there in the pot, ready to address that remediation, and now we are looking at the finer details of how that is to be worked out. I appreciate that we are on that trajectory, except that is no use to the people who are living in those apartments.

The two people in the Gallery have been extraordinary, in the Park West complex, at getting work done and trying to bring progress and safety to people who are living in fear of fire defects in their complexes. Their complex is extraordinary and they do extraordinary work. However, throughout the country, in every constituency and every town, there are apartments that are affected by this, going back to Celtic tiger building. It is really important that we address these issues. The Government is already there but we need to have statements in this House, first to tease out the finer nuances of it and then to ensure the message gets out that people should not delay on getting work done. How are they going to finance that? The Minister for Housing, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, needs to hear that we need an emergency fund to be brought forward as quickly as possible in that regard.

I commend Odette and Sam and acknowledge the other people who are outside the gate and who will be outside the gate every Wednesday until we have actual money in people's hands. As they are living with the daily consequences of it and with the fear of it, I ask for statements in the House on this sooner rather than later.