Hear, hear.

In the first instance, I commend the Government on the work it is doing on the tracker mortgage scandal. It is time the State stood up to the banks, which we bailed out, and dealt with them in an appropriate, heavy-handed manner, akin to the manner in which the banks have treated people. What is good for one is good for the other. Given the way the banks have treated people over the years, they need to receive the same medicine.

When the Chamber first opened in this premises, I commended the fact that it was bright, airy and disability friendly. I regret, however, that the new temporary entrance to Leinster House is like an obstacle course. I found it extraordinarily difficult to navigate what I describe as a maze of steps, ropes, glass and prefabs. It is like a building site and certainly is not disability friendly. Perhaps the Cathaoirleach and the Leader would talk to the facilities personnel about making it disability friendly. This House has a responsibility to lead the way in terms of access, be it permanent or temporary.

I wish to raise the pyrite issue and to ask the Leader to invite the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, to the House to discuss it. More than 20,000 houses in Ireland have been contaminated with pyrite. Many of them are in north County Dublin but they are also spread across the country, including some in County Mayo. The pyrite remediation scheme has only approved approximately 1,300 homes for repairs and only about half of them have had the repairs carried out to date.

This is not acceptable.

Only the most badly-affected homes have been approved. There is a cohort of people in the middle and they have been in limbo for the past ten years. Their homes and lives have been badly affected by this but their cases are not being approved for repair work. Their homes are crumbling around them and are deemed worthless. They are unable to move on with their lives. It is putting a strain on their families. They cannot do renovation work on their houses. They cannot put on an extension. I have spoken to parents who have not had additional children because they have been unable to extend their houses to accommodate their families. Others have put off starting families. Some cannot do any painting work because they do not know if or when the call will ever come that their house will be repaired.

I call on the Minister to attend the House and discuss this issue. It affects 20,000 families throughout the country. Many lives have been destroyed by this. A person's home is his or her safe sanctuary. If their houses are falling down around them, it is difficult for these families to do anything else in their lives. It is affecting them badly. The Minister needs to allocate more funding, employ more people and extend the scheme. He should ensure that every house contaminated by pyrite will be remedied rather than the application process merely rubber-stamped and abandoned. I appeal to the Leader to address this issue.