Hear, hear.

I am sure the Minister will join me in welcoming the representatives of the Not Our Fault 100% Redress campaign in the Gallery, from Counties Dublin and Clare. Can the Minister give us a more precise update, both on when the emergency funding for interim works will be available and on when he intends to publish the legislation, complete the regulations and open the full redress scheme? We are looking for something a bit more definitive than what we have been getting by way of parliamentary questions and responses f…

As I am sure the Minister knows, there is a growing frustration among homeowners, as well as among social housing and private rental tenants impacted by Celtic Tiger era defects. We have always said we want to work with the Minister on a collaborative basis and it is an issue the Minister knows many of us in the Opposition have been campaigning on for a long time. The frustration is that the Minister received the report from the working group on defective buildings a year and a half ago. The Minister brought a memo…

I am concerned about the timeline for the legislation. In a number of recent replies to parliamentary questions the Minister has said that the general scheme will be published within the first half of next year. If that is the case then it is likely to conclude somewhere in the first half of next year, before the summer. As we have seen with the enhanced defective blocks scheme, it took a year from passage of the legislation to completion of the regulations. Therefore, it would be helpful if the Minister was able t…

Will it be a grand scheme or an end-to-end scheme like pyrite? That is an important distinction.

Will it be a grand scheme or an end-to-end scheme?

One of the most disappointing aspects of the Minister's tenure has been his failure to deliver genuine affordable homes to rent or buy through local authorities, approved housing bodies and the Land Development Agency, LDA. As the Minister knows, of the 4,400 genuinely affordable homes to which his plan commits, halfway through this year only 123 had been delivered. I accept there is significant additional delivery in the second half of the year. Will the Minister provide an update on the total delivery of those sc…

I thank the Minister of State. I could have got all of that information from the Department's website before we came to the Chamber. Here is the problem. In the general election, Fianna Fáil promised in its election manifesto to deliver 10,000 genuinely affordable homes every year for five years if it got into government. It promised 6,000 affordable purchase houses through the Ó Cualann model and 4,000 affordable cost-rental homes. The Minister inherited the serviced sites fund when he was appointed and not a sing…

The figures the Minister of State is putting in the public domain are factually incorrect. The report on the Department's website indicates that it did not deliver 1,750 affordable homes last year because, in fact, 750 of those were under the first home scheme. They were only approvals. The actual number of drawdowns was 137. The Government set a target last year of 2,000 genuinely affordable homes and delivered 1,000. This year, it has set a target of 4,400 genuinely affordable homes and only 123 were delivered ha…

I understand the Minister has received the final copy of the report from the Housing Commission on the proposed referendum to insert the right to housing in the Constitution. Will the Minister confirm to the House that it is the recommendation of the Housing Commission to hold such a referendum and that it will provide appropriate wording? When will the Minister publish the report? Most importantly, when will he bring a memo to Cabinet to advance its recommendations and get Cabinet approval to set a date next year …

I join the Minister in commending the Housing Commission on its work on this. All the members of the joint committee are keen to see the report. While the Oireachtas joint committee will have an important role to play, I hope the Minister's intention is not to refer the report of the Housing Commission to our committee to get our advice back to the Government. It would be much better if the Government were to take a decision on this and produce legislation, and then our committee could have a role in the scrutiny o…

I thank the Minister. I am aware there is the possibility of a minority report. This is very healthy and I welcome it. Concern has been expressed by some that there have been attempts to politically influence the work of the Housing Commission, not from the Minister or the Department but from the Taoiseach's office. There has also been some very concerning reports about possible litigation arising from the deliberations of the Housing Commission. Is the Minister aware of these issues? Has he spoken to the Taoiseach…

We never opposed it.

The Deputy is misleading the House.

That is very disappointing. We never opposed the schemes. We would never mislead the House.

That is also not true. Some honesty would be welcome.

Some honesty from Government backbenchers would be helpful.

We have, several hundred thousand euro more than the Minister's €30 million.

Self-praise is no praise.

That is not true and the Minister knows it.