The Minister of State is welcome. He has answered more of my Commencement matters than anybody else this year. If the Minister of State, Deputy Feighan, had been appointed sooner, he would be up there with the Minister of State, Deputy O'Sullivan. I thank him for that.

The local development levy waiver scheme has been one of the most effective measures introduced to support people to begin building at a time of rising cost and uncertainty. It formed part of a wider suite of actions that helped to deliver housing commencements in recent years and it must be commended. More than 60,000 households have directly benefited from the temporary waiver. It has played an important role in keeping projects viable in communities right across the country. The scheme is now closed to new applicants and those who have been approved have until December 2026 to complete their build. It is important because development contributions can range from €4,000 to over €12,000, depending on the local authority, so for many families, that level of support meant the difference between moving ahead and putting their plans on hold.

I want to raise an issue that has come up repeatedly with people in my area. These are people who genuinely acted in good faith and commenced their build within the correct timeframe but did not realise they needed to submit a separate application for the waiver before the closing date. Some were unaware, some misunderstood the process, while others assumed that beginning their build on time automatically qualified them for the waiver. These families are not now asking for special treatment. They simply believe that they need a hand. They believed they were doing everything right. They moved forward when the Government asked them to do so. They are still working hard to complete their homes in time to meet that 2026 deadline. They now find themselves facing unexpected bills of €5,000, €10,000 or more that they had every reason to believe would have been waived under the scheme's remit.

This situation is more strongly felt in rural Ireland, where many of these one-off houses are located. Unlike urban developments, rural households do not receive or benefit from the same public lighting, footpaths and connections to public sewerage as urban households. They have to install their own septic tanks and maintain their own infrastructure. The shoulder the costs that urban households face, yet they also pay the same development contributions despite receiving none of the local authority services in return. For many, that has always felt like a heavy and somewhat confusing burden.

Now, with the waiver closed, the additional financial pressure is causing real distress among people who believe, honestly and reasonably, that they have met the guidelines on time. These families are building their own homes. It is often their first or forever home. They are not developers or speculators; they are people trying to put down roots in their own communities. I am not calling for a reopening of the entire scheme, but I believe that a fair and practical path - a one-off inclusion mechanism for this limited group - for those who can demonstrate they commenced on time within the qualifying period and are on track to finish before December 2026 would honour the spirit of the waiver without undermining the structure of the scheme.

This approach would recognise genuine good faith efforts. It would support households who stepped up when the Government encouraged people to build. It would ensure no family is left carrying an unexpected burden because of an administrative misunderstanding. We have seen the power of this scheme in the commencements in construction activity and the confidence it gives families. A small adjustment now would reinforce those achievements and show that the system remains compassionate, responsive and fair. I acknowledge the progress that has been made and I look forward to hearing the Minister of State's answer.

I thank the Senator for raising the issue. He made the interesting point that I take many of his Commencement matters. I would say that is because I am in the Department of housing. The Senator has been a champion for the housing issue. In fairness, he tries to raise it on every possible occasion. That is probably why I am getting many of them.

The qualification criteria for this scheme are pretty black and white. It will be difficult to try to open it up again. I doubt there are many people in the cohort the Senator is representing. He is talking about individuals, in most cases, who are just trying to get a start in life. Notwithstanding what it says in the prepared response, I will give an undertaking to approach my Department to see if there is any hope that these people can be catered for. I do not want to overpromise because there may be some impediment to that.

The purpose of the development contribution levies is to provide funding to assist local authorities in the provision of necessary public infrastructure and facilities to support development. The contribution levies are charged by all planning authorities as a condition of planning permission for all forms of development proposals, including residential, and are collectible before or on commencement of the relevant development works. The rate of contribution applied may vary by unit size or type, or by geographical area.

On 25 April 2023, the Government approved additional measures under the Housing for All action plan to incentivise the activation of increased housing supply and to help to reduce housing construction costs. These measures included the introduction of temporary time-limited arrangements for the waving of local authority section 48 development contributions, and the refunding of Uisce Éireann water and wastewater connection charges. The Government recognised that further measures needed to be put in place to help to address cost and viability, with a view to incentivising the activation of a pipeline of new commencements and assisting in the delivery of supply as quickly as possible. The waiver scheme was applied to all permitted residential development, including multi-unit developments, self-built and one-off houses, student accommodation and sheltered housing schemes. It initially applied for one year to all permitted residential development commenced on site between 25 April 2023 and 24 April 2024 and completed no later than 31 December 2025.

On 23 April 2024, the Government approved an extension of the waiving of the local authority section 48 development contributions in respect of residential development commenced no later than 31 December 2024 and the refunding of Uisce Éireann water and wastewater connection charges in respect of residential development commenced no later than 30 November 2024. In April 2024, the final date for the completion of development works on qualifying houses under the schemes was extended for a further year, from 31 December 2025 to 31 December 2026. There will be no further extension of the use of the waiver scheme to further extend the required completion date within which housing development that has commenced must be completed to secure the waiver.

The answer I have given the Senator talks about the completion dates, and not necessarily about the deadline for application which is more specifically what he is referring to. I suggest, without creating a level of expectation, that I will ask officials to look at it again, especially where people building one-off houses and their first homes were, for whatever reason, unaware of the waiver or the deadline for application for the waiver.

However, that is as far as the commitment can go because there may be impediments to allowing that cohort of people back in. I get it; I also have those constituents. It seems a bit unfair because that is exactly the type of person this was supposed to benefit.

I thank the Minister of State. The number is small. In my own local authority I believe there is a maximum of 40 applicants. Considering this scheme has benefited over 60,000 people, it has done what it was created to do. I understand it was created as a temporary measure. It was designed and introduced to make building viable. Under facilitating investment and addressing viability, the programme for Government that the Minister of State and I, and all my colleagues, signed up for commits to measures such as development levy waivers, Uisce Éireann connection charge rebates and the croí cónaithe scheme. We know the great work happening in all those areas. What the local authority officials told me is that the small number of people who believed they were on the scheme but have been told they cannot avail of it, the local authority has no scheme from which to draw down the waiver to get it back and that is the only blockage that I am trying to relieve. I thank the Minister of State for his answer.

Is the Senator talking about multi-unit developments as well?

Single.

It is single one-off developments. That is where the focus should be. I will ask officials to look at this again and try to do a cost-benefit analysis on what it would cost the State if we allowed a small cohort who will have built and completed within the appropriate period but who, for whatever reason, missed out on the deadline for the application. They must be very annoyed and frustrated. They are taxpayers as well and a lot of that would be funding the scheme. I will undertake to do that.