Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire agus an Roinn as ucht an Bhille seo a fhoilsiú. I welcome the publication of the Bill. I agree with everyone else. Deputy Conway-Walsh and I have worked with families on this issue. It has caused huge distress, and that does not only apply in the past tense because it is still causing massive distress. This process is being accentuated. I want to make a number of suggestions to follow up on conversations I have had with the Minister around this issue. First is the question of how. How did all this happen? That is being forgotten. We need to provide answers to people as to how this happened, and as to how it happened in such a random manner for many people. A guarantee was given that there would be an inquiry into all of this so we can learn and do not put future families through this process. It is important that we begin that process and stand up that inquiry. I welcome the changes proposed in the ministerial amendment in relation to semi-detached houses. The position until now has been that where there are two owners of houses attached to one another, one might be approved whereas the person in the next house might not be approved. The person who is approved might proceed with construction and actually lose space in their existing house so as not to affect the house that was not proceeding. It made no sense that two houses that were inevitably going to proceed at some stage and would have to be reconstructed if they had pyrite were going to be done separately under two separate systems. This was also an extra expense, not just on the families but also on the State. I welcome the fact that common sense has prevailed. I would ask for that measure to be introduced without delay and without extra regulation tying it up. I welcome the amendment in relation to adjacent dwellings. This has been a major bugbear in respect of the scheme to date. I also welcome the fact ancillary grants are being taken outside of the cap. We need a one-stop shop to manage all of this. The processes to manage separately the defective concrete blocks, DCB, grant and the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, SEAI, grant are putting people through too much stress. I put on record my thanks - I know Deputy Conway-Walsh, as somebody who works on this every day, will agree - to Mayo County Council and, in particular, to Ms Clodagh Gleeson, an official in Mayo County Council who is an example to every single public and civil servant in this country as to how to get people through the most extraordinary and difficult of situations, how to show empathy and understanding, and to keep in touch with people even when dealing with a scheme that may be difficult. I commend her approach and her empathy for families. The appeals process is clearly not working. Far greater clarity needs to be brought to that process. People stuck in the process are not being given the information as to where it is at, which adds to the sense of stress and distress. It needlessly adds to the difficult challenges that are being faced. I ask that resources be put in to find the communication that is necessary in order to give people some sort of sense of where they are at. It is important we get the Bill passed quickly. Some people are waiting for payments and the Minster is aware of concerns around that. However, we need to know why and we still really have not progressed that. How is it that one house has it and the neighbouring house can have been constructed at a relatively similar time and not have any situation or pyrite? We need to try to get an understanding of that because if we do not, we will be here again in two, three, four, 20, 25 or 30 years looking at a similar scandal. That is if people are not held to account for what homeowners have been put through, the distress, including mental distress. We cannot allow it to happen again for the quality of our building standards and confidence in them. We just simply cannot allow it to happen again and allow people to get away with it in the way they seem to have to date.

Sentiment score: 0.07