That is a disgrace.

That is an outrageous remark. It is the Taoiseach who is leaving people homeless.

It is a shame on the Taoiseach.

That is a disgrace. It is beneath the Taoiseach.

Thousands are homeless.

Shame on you.

It is nice to see the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, has appeared. Where has he been?

Not on this one; it is too urgent.

I thank my colleague Deputy O'Rourke for tabling this very important motion. As the Minister knows, I represent one of those constituencies that has a larger than average percentage of households on low or very modest incomes. I represent large urban areas where people are in poorly paid, precarious and part-time employment. Many of those people do not get to choose the type of energy supply that they have because they live predominantly in the private rental sector. That means they do not get to choose or control …

In July, I visited the home of Sharon Moss in Letterkenny, along with my colleagues, Deputies Mac Lochlainn and Doherty. Sharon's home is one of the worst defective block homes I have been in. The walls are crumbling and half of the house cannot be occupied. One would have to be there to experience the smell of damp and rot throughout the house. One would not allow a rat to live in a property like it. Sharon has applied for the defective blocks scheme. She is one of the 500 or so applications from Donegal, Mayo and…

There was a moment where I felt I must have knocked my head and woken up in a parallel universe because what I have just heard over the past half an hour does not reflect the reality for tens of thousands of people on the streets. As they say, self-praise is no praise, with the greatest of respect to the Minister and his party colleagues. The Government has now been in office for almost two and half years and is almost at the midway point of its term of office. It is true that it was delayed in putting its housing …

I move: That Dáil Éireann: believes that: — the Defective Concrete Products Levy being proposed by the Government is badly designed and unacceptable; and — it means that the people in homes with defects, and first-time buyers, will foot the bill through increased house prices, as has been recognised by the Economic and Social Research Institute; notes the assertion by the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland that this will add €4,000 to the price of a house; and calls on the Government to: — hold those most respo…

That is not the case.

We do not.

We do.

That is because you do it badly.

I listened carefully to the Minister for Finance. He said the Government has a duty to homeowners living with defective homes. That will come as a great surprise to those homeowners because they have been living with defective homes for over 11 years. They have been campaigning for action from Government. How many homeowners in Donegal have received their full grant amount in those 11 years? It is 14. In Mayo it is zero. In Clare it is zero. How many apartment owners with fire safety or structural defects, or duple…

Yesterday, tens of thousands of homeowners and tenants who have been affected by Celtic tiger-era defects were desperately hoping that there would be a redress scheme announced in the budget. Instead, they heard by way of correspondence from the Minister that he was going to set up an interdepartmental agency group and advisory forum and that proposals for progressing some form of scheme would be delivered by the end of the year. Many of those homeowners are nervous that they will experience long delays before a ne…

I recently met with homeowners and tenants in a development in Park West. They have recently learned that they have Celtic tiger-era defects costing to the tune of €70,000 per apartment. They need redress and support now. The concern I have from listening to the Minister’s response and from reading the letter he sent to the Construction Defects Alliance is that it sounds similar to the long, protracted process we saw with the defective blocks. There was a 12-month period before legislation was produced and passed. …

The one thing that we should all learn from the two problematic defective block schemes is that we should not provide a grant scheme for Celtic tiger-era defects. The quickest, most efficient and most cost-effective way are providing these tens of thousands of homeowners with redress is to change the terms of reference for the Pyrite Resolution Board and to allow it to take on an end-to-end scheme to support those homeowners. A grant scheme will be exceptionally difficult to operate, particularly for multi-unit dev…