My question is on housing.

It concerns an update on the report of the expert panel on defective mica concrete blocks in Donegal and the work of the National Standards Authority of Ireland, NSAI, on the development of a protocol that the Minister committed to have completed by the end of April. When he met residents of affected homes last December in Donegal, he also gave a commitment to provide an update on this matter and on the future of a redress scheme to help homeowners repair their houses. As we know, more than 5,000 homes are potentially affected. Will the Minister provide an update on this matter? Will the protocol be completed by the end of April? Will he ensure that a commitment is given to homeowners in the form of the promised scheme introduced to help them fix their homes?

The Deputy and I were at the meeting to which he refers. The timeline given at the meeting was that we would hopefully be in a position to publish the protocol in February or March. We are a little behind that now, but the protocol is practically ready to be published. It is the work of the NSAI; it is not work my Department can do directly. We asked the NSAI to prepare the protocol as quickly as possible. It should be published in the coming weeks and then we will be able to move on. I did say we should be in a position by May or June to bring a lot of certainty to this matter, and we are still on track to do that.