I welcome this Bill. It will deliver some much-needed changes to the original legislation. It is unfortunate it has taken a year to get to this point. That is longer than it should have taken. I worked hard at Cabinet on securing the decision in October 2024 that whenever the new rates came in, they would be applied retrospectively. It has taken 12 months for that to come to the Dáil in this legislation. One of the frustrations of the implementation and development of the defective block legislation and schemes in recent years has been the amount of time taken to step out each part of the process. It is nonetheless welcome. I know it is complex to deal with legislation but it should not have taken that length of time. Nonetheless, it is important and welcome we are at this point in the Dáil today and getting it into place. I recognise the commitment of the Minister, Deputy Browne, to this process. I know it has been a frustration to him. He has wanted to get this delivered and brought in. Each time I have pressed him over the past year, he has equally been pressing to move it on and has expressed frustration in terms of the time as well. He has worked hard, as have his officials. We see today 28 pages of technical legislation to implement these changes. It is unfortunate it took that amount of time. I also recognise the work of the Minister of State, Deputy O'Sullivan, who has given his commitment to this process and legislation, as well as his work on behalf of the Elm Park residents in Buncrana. While it has taken too long to get to this point, it is important we complete it by Christmas, if at all possible. I know that is the commitment and desire of people across the House. There are three weeks of Oireachtas time left, including this week, before Christmas. The Opposition parties facilitated the waiving of pre-legislative scrutiny after discussion at the Oireachtas committee. It is entirely doable, by coming together over the next three weeks, to give this attention now, after being published this morning, which is, again, later than I would have liked. There are three weeks to fully assess it, bring it through Committee Stage in the Dáil and bring it through Second and Committee Stages in the Seanad, where it is also possible to interrogate it and for amendments to be fully discussed. Those three weeks should be utilised, if at all possible, to bring the legislation through. We would not want to see it going into the new year because people are waiting on the retrospective payment in relation to the 10%, in particular. The steps taken in the Bill are welcome. There is a 10% increase to the maximum overall rate, bringing it from €420,000 to €462,000, and a retrospective increase of around 8% in square foot rates. It is important that is applied to people who started building and got their grant rate before October 2024. The increase in the number of weeks allowed for the completion of a build from 65 to 130 is important, as is reducing the notice needed for an extension from 12 weeks to two. The option is being put into legislation for owners who already had an option 2 to 5 to avail of a technical review once I.S. 465 is finalised. That issue has arisen since the original legislation came through. It is important it be addressed now. New science is under consideration by the National Standards Authority that any homeowner who had less than full demolition in their original grant would get the opportunity to have the decision reviewed against the new standard which, we have no doubt, will be different from what was there previously. Another important step is the change so somebody who was not the relevant owner but was married to, cohabiting with or in civil partnership with the relevant owner at the time the legislation was brought in and subsequently, for example, separated but is still living in that property - I know there are a small number of such cases - can avail of the scheme and get his or her current home remediated. I know the Minister will bring forward a decision in relation to side-by-side building for people with medical needs. That will be important and it will be important that it properly encapsulates people with medical needs and is inclusive of the different people who have been brought to his attention. That is something I have been working on with him. Another important step allows two semi-detached builds to be progressed at the same time rather than having to be done separately, which created many issues, had to be addressed and should not be the case. The defective concrete block legislation was passed in the summer of 2022 and the new scheme came in in the summer of 2023. We have seen very significant progress. It bears no resemblance to the scheme that was there two and half years ago and was in place until summer 2023. Under the old scheme, the maximum was €247,000 on a 90:10 basis. A maximum of 90% could be received and there was no storage and no rent. Homeowners had to come up with the upfront cost of testing, which was in the region of €7,000. There was also no availability or access to the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland energy grants. Many homeowners are able to avail of between €25,000 and €30,000 - in most cases anyway, it is €25,000 - alongside the actual grant rate. This is important because this was not there in the last one. It is a significant and massive departure for the scheme from what was there in the past, which certainly did not work. There has been a significant departure and progress in what we are seeing on the ground. When the old scheme was in place, from my memory, work had commenced and started on a number of houses in the high double digits. It was a small number. We have seen a step change with the new legislation and massive progress on the ground. If we are looking at Donegal, and I will focus on my county alone in relation to this issue, 784 homes in total have commenced work up to this point, and that number is increasing every week. A total of 784 houses in Donegal that have now commenced. Of those 784 houses, 205 are now complete and have finished the job. Those people have their homes remediated and are, thankfully, out of that nightmare. Of the rest, 579 are under construction. That is in Donegal alone. It is a massive step change in the last two and a half years. You can see that with your eyes as you travel around the county. There is a massive amount of work yet to take place and that we need to do. There is a big challenge at the moment with building and trades and massive pressure on those areas. Building capacity is now the main constraint on the number of houses that can be done. About 1,328 in total have had their grant approved. That is welcome, but there is more to be done. As we go forward, we must make sure the scheme is appropriate and adjusted as necessary to real-life experience. More also needs to be done on other issues. The social housing scheme should be in place but is not. It is not good enough it is not there. That needs to be brought in immediately. As with the private sector and people in their private homes, there are also council homes that need to be addressed. This aspect has been too slow and needs to be dealt with. The appeals process likewise has been too slow. It has only started to move in recent times. That also needs to push on. Likewise, the review of the IS 465 standard by the National Standards Authority of Ireland needs to move. The Minister of State, Deputy O'Sullivan, said today that is expected in the first quarter of next year. It does need to come then because other deadlines that have been given before have been missed. We need to see that. It will then inform the new standard, which will allow people who have options 2 to 5 to get their decisions reviewed against up-to-date and current science. It must also inform the new standard for concrete blocks that will be coming out of it. Again, this must be informed by the up-to-date science the authority is dealing with. We must ensure we act in relation to the mortgaging of homes that are not necessarily affected, or will not be affected long term but cannot be sold. Again, this is because we do not have the standard in place to be able to inform conveyancing decisions. This too is an issue that needs to be addressed. The other big thing we need to see concerns apartments and multi-unit developments. This is tied to the legislation for defective apartments in Dublin and other parts of the country. That legislation has not come to the House yet. Any multi-unit developments in Donegal are waiting on the east coast apartment legislation to be dealt with in order that they will be included in it. When that legislation comes through the House, it is important it fully include the capacity for multi-unit developments to be fully replaced where they have defective concrete blocks. It is going to be really important. At the moment, they cannot avail of this scheme, but that legislation needs to come through the House and there needs to be follow-through as well. I recognise the work of the Minister of State, Deputy O'Sullivan, with the residents of Elm Park in Buncrana. A number of homes there were built on a flood plain, somewhere they should never have been built. All of them have defective concrete in them. They cannot be rebuilt in the place where they are and will have to be moved. The Ministers of State, Deputy O'Sullivan and Deputy Moran, have had meetings in this regard, and the Minister, Deputy Browne, is very committed to bringing this issue to a finality as well. I ask that he bring this decision to a finality by Christmas because those homeowners need that certainty as to what is going to happen. They need to know they will be accommodated with a different solution that will allow them to move away from where they are, rebuild and get new homes elsewhere, and not rebuild in the place they are in now. All of that is required. There has been massive work and progress to date. I see it in my own county. It is a stressful and traumatic experience for everyone concerned. Thankfully, some people have come out of that. Many are in the middle of it. Many are still waiting and have not got to it. It is certainly my objective as a public representative in government to work every week to try to make sure the progress we have seen is continued - just as it was my objective to hold the then Government to account in terms of progress on this when I was in opposition - and to make sure we get to the stage where every family can get out of the nightmare they should never have had to live through in the first place.

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It is a good job you are not in government.

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It has been two and a half years since Sinn Féin promised its own legislation. It is a good job that Deputy O'Reilly is not in government.

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What have you done, Deputy O'Reilly?

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What-----

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I think you are a little bit biased.

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