The Taoiseach was asked a question by Deputy Keogh from Mayo, one of the counties affected by defective concrete blocks. I received a reply to a parliamentary question recently from the Minister for housing, which confirms that under the pyrite remediation scheme, almost 3,000 families in Dublin and north Leinster received 100% redress under a State-run scheme, and absolutely rightly so. Why are families and homeowners in counties Donegal, Mayo, Sligo, Limerick and Clare treated like second-class citizens? Why do they have to find tens of thousands of euro, in some cases more than €100,000, to make their homes safe through a grant scheme? When will the Government change the scheme to make sure all citizens who are victims of these scandals are treated equally and fairly across the State?

I would argue that the scheme the previous Government introduced was extremely comprehensive. It was far better than the scheme Sinn Féin endorsed in 2019. A lot was done by the previous Government to try to dramatically and significantly improve the scheme. Implementation is the key and delivering on the grounds.

Is it fair though? Is everybody treated fairly?

It is a fair scheme. We can review aspects of it. The State has committed over €1 billion, maybe €2 billion eventually, to that scheme. That is what is involved. It is a huge commitment by the State, and rightly so because homeowners suffered grievously and in a shocking way in terms of the defective blocks reality and experience so many people have gone through particularly in Donegal, Mayo, Clare and other counties. There is no shortage of commitment. What we really need to do is to get more delivery and get more houses done.