Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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199. To ask the Minister for Finance the number of meetings he has held with retail banks, regarding the mortgage treatment of homes affected by defective blocks or their status following remediation, in each of the years 2021, 2022 and 2023, respectively. [53850/23]

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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The overall Government response on the problems associated with defective concrete blocks is led by my colleague the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage. His Department is engaging with impacted householders and relevant stakeholders and has put in place a scheme of financial support to help affected homeowners.

Some homeowners have identified potential challenges with funding the commencement of remediation works in circumstances where advance payment is required by building professionals prior to receipt of the first grant payment and I have asked my officials to engage with the Banking and Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI), in association with officials from the Department of Housing, to explore their funding mechanism proposal to assist on that particular issue.

I and my Department have communicated with the BPFI, as representative body for the banking industry, on this and also on the more general banking related problems arising for impacted homeowners but I have not had meetings with individual retail banks on this matter.