I feel I must intervene in this debate. I am quite sure there was no reflection on me when it was suggested that there are those who say that it is working and it only needs tweaking at the edges. It is not working and it needs a lot more than tweaking at the edges. I said in the debate on Second Stage that I had the honour of representing this country in the United States a number of years ago as Minister of State. I went to New Orleans and I remember the catastrophic, severe flooding the city had when buildings fell overnight. When I went around my constituency, I saw buildings that are crumbling slowly in Donegal. It is not just about bricks and mortar. It is about the human factor. It is about the mental stress on people. It is about families who can no longer afford to send their children to school and the children who are pleading with their parents to allow them to go out and work to try to help them to repair or rebuild their homes. While this is not a matter for the Minister but one for the NSAI, we have the ludicrous situation that some people were made an offer to have the outer layer replaced. The same blocks are in the inner layer as are in the outer layer. I have called on the NSAI and its chief executive to expedite the amended IS 465 to help them to do that. I have been a loyal party member since I came to the House first in 1981 and I have supported it in every single vote. Of course, I must also remember that I have to be loyal to the people who have elected me over all of those years to the local authority, the Dáil and the European Parliament. I must speak on their behalf. I believe that there is not 100% redress. I am meeting people who cannot raise the funds to have the initial preparatory works carried out. The banks have to take some blame as well. They do not want to help the people affected. I believe, as I have said time and again, that there should be some form of payment made in advance to help these people. It is so bureaucratic. I feel for the those who are involved in the overall system, particularly those in our own local authority who are doing their utmost. They are snowed under with work. I know that extra funds have been provided to help them, but it is not working as quickly as it should. Irrespective of who is here in the future, I suggest that there could be three, four, five or six more Dáileanna and this will still be ongoing. I believe it has to be resolved. One way to resolve it is to give people an opportunity to move into modular homes that can be located in various parts of my county and in other counties. The big problem at the moment is that even if people have the money, they are not in a position to move out or find alternative accommodation. The regulation is now changing and in fairness to the Minister, Deputy Browne, he listened to us when it came to the side-by-side buildings that can be built within the curtilage of the site. There is nothing wrong with doing that, even though there are not exceptional circumstances. That is one aspect of the proposal that I accept. I also believe there should be consistency when it comes to similar types of problems in other parts of the country. It is a serious situation for all of these families. Regarding the blocks, I voted with the Government on that issue. It is the same material going into the foundations that went in to the making of the blocks. It does not make sense. While I support a lot of what has been said, I have always been loyal to my party and I believe I can serve the people of Donegal better if I continue to work with the Minister, who I believe is genuine in trying to resolve this problem, rather than being a hero tonight and voting against my party, as one Deputy did many years ago before evaporating. I feel strongly about this and I have been making a case to the Minister. I am making that case publicly tonight and I will continue to do so. I have never said - and I know the earlier statement was not a reflection on me - that the scheme is working. It is not working.
Sentiment score: 0.06