Last year, the then Government finally announced an increase in the cap. It was in line with the recommendations of the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland, who examined the real costings on the ground. The reality is that the Government did not apply that to people who are going through the scheme already; it was only for new entrants. That was cruel. The Government made it clear that it was going to amend the legislation to sort this out. I appealed to the Government to do that before the election. I stood in front of the Taoiseach and Tánaiste separately and appealed to them to bring in the amendments. We would make time and it could be done. I feared that this would happen. Unfortunately, I have been proven right. We are now sitting in May and there is no sign of this amendment to the legislation. It is straightforward. I raised this directly with the Minister, Deputy James Browne, who was in County Donegal in recent days. I made it clear to not talk about ten Stages of legislation. We will do everything in the Opposition to get this through. No pre-legislative scrutiny will be required if the Government honours what it said it was going to do last year, which was to make this increase in the cap available to everybody who is currently going through the scheme. This is really cruel. People are struggling with the €40,000, €50,000, €60,000, €70,000 or €80,000 plus that they must find themselves. They do not have the money to make the final payments to pay the builders. This is urgent. It has been urgent since late last year. I appeal to the Government now to bring this through as soon as possible. It should be brought through next week. It will be facilitated by the Opposition in every way. We will do everything we can to make it happen next week in the Dáil and Seanad; there is no excuse. This is a simple straightforward amendment to the legislation. It should have been done late last year. It needs to be done now.

Sentiment score: -0.04

He is absent.

Sentiment score: 0.00

I am really concerned with this response written by the Department officials. The people who wrote this were present in Donegal in recent days. They know the urgency of this. Now they are talking about adding other issues to the amendments. This could go on forever. This is straightforward. It is a simple amendment to the legislation to make sure that the increase in the cap is available to everybody currently participating in the scheme, not just the new entrants. It is a really straightforward matter. It should be urgently done as a stand-alone amendment. It was made clear to the Minister. I do not know why he would have any doubt about this. There are not ten Stages of pre-legislative scrutiny. This is something that everybody, both Opposition and Government, agrees on. If the Government honours what it said it was going to do last year, which is make the increase available to everybody currently going through the scheme, it will fly through the Dáil and the Seanad next week without a problem. It needs to be done urgently. Please, do not now add on other issues that will drag it on for God-knows how long. What is happening to families is cruel. It needs to be sorted out.

Sentiment score: 0.06

It was in the spring one, too.

Sentiment score: 0.00