It is almost three years since Cabinet, in December 2023, gave approval to the Minister's predecessor, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, to draft legislation to underpin a redress scheme for homeowners and tenants living in Celtic tiger era defective homes. That Minister missed the timelines for the publication and passing of the legislation. Deputy Browne indicated to us earlier this year that he hoped to have the legislation published before the summer and passed in the autumn, with applications open before the end of the year. Will the Minister provide us with an update as to where that legislation is and when that much-needed scheme will open to homeowners?

I thank Deputy Ó Broin for his question in relation to this legislation for a redress scheme. The safety of people, when it comes to both the quality and standard of the homes they are living in, whether rented or bought, has to be a top priority for all of us. I want to be crystal clear on that. As a Government, we previously approved the development of supports for the remediation of fire safety, structural safety and water ingress defects in apartment buildings, including duplexes, constructed between 1991 and 2013.

An interim remediation scheme has been in place since December 2023. This was put together as a scheme with the aim of providing an acceptable level of fire safety in buildings pending introduction of the statutory scheme and completion of the full remedial works. The interim scheme is for the funding of emergency fire safety defect works and the scheme is administered by the Housing Agency. Applications can be made via the Housing Agency's website. I urge anyone who believes they are impacted to make contact with the Housing Agency. As of the end of August 2026, 293 applications to the interim scheme have been validated, having met the required eligibility criteria. These applications represent 25,947 residential units, with circa 75% of these in the Dublin region.

In February 2026, the Government announced a number of significant amendments to the interim scheme. This was in order to simplify procurement and cut through administrative hurdles. I wanted to make sure that we were allowing works relating to fire detection and alarm systems to be completed far more quickly, while ensuring residents can remain safely in their homes until full building remediation is finished. For many residents we have engaged with, this has been a critical and timely measure.

Alongside this ongoing work, my Department has been engaged in drafting legislation to underpin a statutory scheme with the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel. Drafting is at an advanced stage and I expect the apartment and duplex defects remediation scheme Bill to be published in the coming months. I look forward to bringing the legislation through the Dáil and, once passed, I expect that the statutory scheme will be operational shortly thereafter. What is expected and being planned carefully for is that applicants to the current interim scheme will transfer seamlessly over to the new statutory scheme.

Tonight, tens of thousands of families will be forced to sleep in defective, and in many cases unsafe, homes. All they want to know is when the legislation will be published and when the scheme will be open for applications. On the basis of the answer the Minister provided to us, given that there are only ten sitting weeks left in this Dáil term, it is unlikely, if not nigh impossible, for the legislation to complete passage through the Oireachtas, which means at the earliest the scheme will be open next year. Can the Minister confirm that is realistically the timeline in front of us? Will he tell us if it is his hope or intention to at least have the legislation published and to commence the legislative process over the next ten weeks? Will he give any indication to those families who will be waiting for the comprehensive scheme when it will be open for applications?

Given people's experience of the defective concrete blocks scheme and the interim fire safety scheme, the difficulty is there is nothing simple or straightforward about either. In fact, the Government also took the decision in December 2023 to open the interim scheme. The Minister is correct that 25,000 homes have now been approved but three years on, only 600 homes have been approved and are able to access funding. That means 24,000 homes - these are emergency fire safety works that are to be funded - are still left in limbo. The Government also approved, in 2023, a retrospective payment for homeowners who had already paid those costs. Pathfinders were meant to be funded. Not a single one has been done.

Now that the Minister has initiated the review of the defective concrete blocks scheme, people in Donegal, Mayo, Clare and elsewhere will ask whether they will now get retrospective payments, a full 100% redress and the kinds of supports we are hoping the Minister will include in the new scheme provided by the Housing Agency that were denied to homeowners on the western seaboard. We want it to be simple and straightforward, but three years of delay for these families is unacceptable, like a decade of delay for families impacted by defective concrete blocks.

I certainly hear the Deputy and I have real concern for the people in these properties. I have met their representatives on a number of occasions and we are working closely with them. As I say, I want this done as quickly as possible. I had hoped and aimed to have it more quickly than this but I do not want a scheme, as I said, that is overly complex. I want one that is workable and deliverable. We will get this right.