The people of Mayo, represented so courageously by the Mayo Pyrite Action Group, are living in homes that crumble around them. Their walls weep damp, their children breathe mould and their lives are suspended in uncertainty, yet the Government offers schemes that are actually defective in themselves. They exclude, they delay and they diminish. The families are not looking for charity. They are looking for justice, they are looking for 100% redress, they are looking for retrospective payments and they are looking for fair timelines. IS 465:2018 is unjust and, indeed, has become a barrier to so many families. Recently, a family in Mayo bought a house in good faith and got an engineer’s report. However, they bought after the cut-off date that the Government introduced in its scheme and, as a result of this cut-off, cannot avail of the defective concrete scheme.

The time is up, Deputy.

This is a family that has children with disabilities. They are in immense difficulty, with rodents in the house.

Deputy Lawless, your time is up.

I am asking the Taoiseach what he can do for this family.

I call the Taoiseach to respond.

Is he going to develop a new scheme to actually include these families that are so excluded by the scheme?

Deputy, your time is up. Do not apply for QPL if you cannot make your point in 60 seconds.

The Government has responded in an unprecedented way to the pyrite issue and to defective concrete blocks more generally. The State is taking up the issue where, originally, insurance companies or bonds should have. The State has intervened in an unprecedented way in terms of the amount of funding that has been allocated, and we are doing that to help the homeowners involved. I cannot speak on individual, specific cases. We have extended the scheme beyond Donegal in terms of the defective blocks.

The pyrite scheme has been ongoing for a decade or more. The schemes are not never-ending. There have to be clear protections. I do not know the engineering-----

But the cut-off-----

Please, Deputy.

I do not know the engineers' reports and cannot comment on individual cases.