The Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, confirmed at a committee meeting this morning, in response to questions from my colleague, Deputy Ó Broin, that there will be no more money in the budget for the defective concrete blocks scheme for next year. That budget is €40 million. The Tánaiste knows the urgency of the situation in Donegal, Mayo and other counties, where houses are crumbling down around people. We need to have more money available in the budget for next year. He needs to send a clear signal of the urgency with which the Government is treating this issue and that the scheme will be expeditiously introduced. I totally agree with Deputy Pringle's point earlier that there is no logic to the sliding scale. We need to see the proper amount of money in the budget. We need to get on with the urgent cases, in particular, where houses are falling down right now. Will the Tánaiste give us assurances on that?

I can do so. There is an initial allocation in the budget of €40 million for next year and, if that is needed and spent, then more can be found. We are not going to have a situation whereby we set up a scheme in the first few months of next year, get it up and running in the spring and summer and then tell people in the autumn it is being suspended. That is not going to happen. If we get to the point where the €40 million is spent, at that point additional money can be allocated, and that can be done through a variety of resources from within the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage or a Supplementary Estimate, if that is required. None of the €40 million has yet been spent.