Would people have to submit a new application?

I thank the Minister for his reply. There is an engineer from Donegal working on the scheme who has a case where the works were approved for level 2 remediation of outer wall. On starting the works, it was realised that the rate of deterioration was such that there was much more extensive damage. On further inspection, the building in question now needs level 1 remediation. The Minister has given us good news today in that regard. There is the damage threshold of a 1.5 mm crack. I would like the Minister to take in…

I do not fully subscribe to the amendment as put forward. There has been spin in respect of the scheme and this is part of it. The scheme covers 100% of the cost. It was a big step to get the Minister to allow downsizing. Many applicants want to downsize and it is good that they are allowed to do so under the Bill. I refer to what I said earlier, however, in respect of whether a planning exemption exists for those on the same footprint. Those who are downsizing need to know whether the exemption applying to those r…

They will be exempt as well.

I do not agree with this amendment for practical reasons. We have all seen developments being undertaken and jobs being done by developers over the years. When developers are under pressure, they move around jobs. The longer we extend the period for completion and the more flexibility is given in that regard, the more a developer will move around sites. That means more pain for homeowners. The latter need certainty that their job will be done within a specified period. It is in the interest of homeowners to keep th…

I thank the Minister for attending to discuss this vital legislation, which I strongly support. I thank some of the Opposition spokespersons for their thoughtful approach to this legislation. Both Senators Boyhan and Flynn talked about bringing this legislation back to the people. They are 100% right that this legislation must be about the applicants and the affected homeowners. It is about their chances of getting their lives back in order again. This has been an awful, traumatic time for these people. A lot of wo…

When the commotion settles-----

I want to welcome the Minister to the House-----

I commend the Bill and the work that has gone into it heretofore. The establishment of an electoral commission under the Bill is monumental and overdue. Any democratic Government must aim to include as many people as possible in the electoral process and remove barriers to voting. There are also welcome changes to incentivise electoral boundary decision-making processes that will hopefully avoid cutting off people from voting for representatives in their own counties. I am particularly referring to my own county, a…

I welcome the Minister to the House. He has had a very busy day already but it is welcome to see him here to discuss this very important issue for our nation. I would like also to add my congratulations to the Sinn Féin Party on its election results in Northern Ireland, and similarly to the DUP and the Alliance Party which had very successful elections, but also offer commiserations to the UUP and the SDLP which did not have elections that they would have liked. That is how elections go. They have a job at hand. Th…

I ask the Deputy Leader to write to An Taoiseach and ask him to join us for a debate on a shared island. Next week, Assembly elections will take place in Northern Ireland and we are all too well aware of how long the parliament in Stormont has not been working. I know from being in Northern Ireland canvassing that people are sick of politics not working there. I believe that it is important that Stormont does work for the coming term. In the context of a shared island, what happens there is very much in the interes…

I thank the Acting Chairperson very much for the meeting she arranged yesterday, which was very useful. The Minister of State is very welcome to the House. I am very much aware of the work she has done prior to the role she is in now. I am also very aware of the esteem in which she holds her brief but also the priority she affords the whole area of brain health, dementia and Alzheimer's disease. Like Senator Carrigy, I am all too aware of the condition of Alzheimer's disease. My father suffered from it as did three…

I welcome the leadership shown by the Minister of State on this issue. As many speakers have noted, the past ten years or so have been very tough in terms of banking in this country. There are still many people in this country who have been burned as a result of banks holding fire sales of loans and selling them to vulture funds. This left many couples across this island in no man's land and they are still there today. It is an awful tragedy but it is another day's work, so I will not go into it now. Credit unions …

The Minister of State is very welcome here today to deal with this vital legislation. I commend my Green Party colleagues on taking it forward. Senator Garvey has been pushing the merits of this very step on me for some months now, and I am fully in agreement with her. It is excellent legislation. The Fianna Fáil Party is very much in agreement with the principles of the legislation. It is absolutely imperative that we now take these steps in our efforts to become a much greener society. At a time farming is being …

Given the week we are in, I wish to raise the 50th anniversary of the Bloody Sunday events this year. It is ironic that the 50th anniversary falls on a Sunday. The Bloody Sunday Trust in Derry has duly titled its work One World-One Struggle and has organised events from this Thursday, 27 January, until Sunday, 30 January. I ask people to engage with those events over that four-day period. A play titled The White Handkerchief will take place at 4 p.m., the time of the shootings 50 years ago in 1972. I saw some very …

I wish to discuss the railway strategic review which is now under way. It was announced by the Ministers, Nichola Mallon, MLA, and Deputy Eamon Ryan on 29 November. I did not speak on it last week because of the whole mica situation. I did not want to blur the lines. I very much want to emphasise that this review is now taking place. I thank the two Ministers for the input they have had and wish to put on record some of the conditions they have set in respect of the review. The press release states that the strateg…

This week we celebrate the first anniversary of the setting up of the shared island unit. This is at a time when we are celebrating the 100 year anniversary of the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty. It is 23 years since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement. Society and Members of both Houses have an opportunity to finally put to rest grievances and differences in this country and have a final peace settlement. It behoves us all to work in that direction and to avail of what is a fantastic opportunity under the …

I will speak about the new scheme put in place by the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, yesterday. I strongly wish to put on record how much I welcome this new scheme. It affects the Deputy Leader's county as well as mine. There has been an awful lot of confusion overnight. I wonder how much of the €200,000 Sinn Féin raised at a golf event in the US over the past number of days has been used by it on social media overnight to confuse the people of Donegal and Mayo about the scheme. It is very important that people …

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. As a Donegal man, it would be remiss of me to stand here without mentioning the approval of the mica scheme by the Government. It is welcome and we will speak more about that another time. I am somebody who has taken a keen interest in the national development plans. The concept of the national development plan has come to the fore since the early 2000s. I was always taken with the fact that Northern Ireland was always somewhat blanked out in our national development pl…

I welcome the Taoiseach. We are very proud to have him here as our Taoiseach. I was equally as proud on the day he asked me to be his spokesperson on Northern Ireland. Considering what he has done and the republican approach he has taken in the context of the shared island unit and what he is trying to do there, he is setting up an approach to deal with issues in this country in an inclusive way, because far too much of what has happened since the advent of the Good Friday Agreement has been along sectarian lines a…