While we very much welcome the inclusion of Wexford and Fingal in the scheme - my colleague Deputy O'Donoghue, who will speak after me, has done a lot of work in this regard - it still does not cover the fundamental issues that exist with the scheme as it stands. While these changes may be necessary, they are still far too incremental. Because of the way the Government has designed it, the scheme has effectively been designed to fail. The fact the Act still requires rigorous case-by-case technical assessment by the Housing Agency to designate a new area delays urgent repairs for homeowners in areas that are awaiting designation. There are also the other issues that, at this stage, have been well aired in the House for many years regarding the fact it is still not 100% redress. There is nothing to cover social housing or childcare facilities. We still have the outstanding issue of the side-by-side rebuilding, which Deputy Ward very eloquently raised on Leaders' Questions earlier. The scheme is fundamentally unaffordable. Homeowners in counties that have not yet officially been designated face immense stress watching for structural cracks while waiting for their county to be approved. Meanwhile their property, the thing for which they have worked night and day, is devaluing in front of them. We all know that this issue is more widespread than originally feared. That is why we need an end-to-end remediation scheme, as many others have stated in the House over the years. This should be based on the premise of the Fingal pyrite scheme and not this grant scheme, which is inflexible. How many more times are we going to be here incrementally chipping away at the scheme, adding this county, that county and that local area? Technical amendments to the Bill have failed to fix the core issues. The 2025 amendment Bill missed an important opportunity to address side-by-side rebuilding. The scheme by its nature is far too narrow, exclusionary and limited. Where is the review of IS 465? It has been repeatedly delayed. This is cruel and indefensible, with families stranded in dangerous and defective homes. It is vital that the redress is based on the latest scientific understanding of this crisis and not on flawed data. We also need to see the review of the scheme urgently in July of this year. While more than 3,000 applications were made by the end of last year, only 7% of applicants have completed the necessary work.

Sentiment score: -0.08