Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We have not seen the Minister's capital funding or its criteria, but he described it as critical fire safety works and other emergency capital projects, both internal and external. Does the Minister understand what is happening with these buildings? These buildings are going to be demolished. Big JCBs are going to come in and tear them to the grand. They have to; the blocks are rotten and they are crumbling. This is not a matter of fire doors or issues in terms of fire escapes, or the type of scheme the Minister has talked about, which is welcome. A separate funding stream is required as a result of deleterious materials. This results from light-touch and no-touch regulation overseen by successive Governments. That is the problem here. The core issue is being ignored by the Minister's Department. He is trying to tell them. We have had these conversations with the operators. The Minister is telling them that there is a scheme here and that it is the same scheme as that for a private operator that needs fire stops in its doors. That is just bonkers. When will Raphoe Community Playgroup and the playgroups in Letterkenny and Ardara have clarity that they can build the playgroups that they owned, from top to bottom? It is not good enough that they are left in limbo. I said that these people have had to raise funds. They had to scrimp and scrape to build a premises in the first instance. One playgroup has been told that it will cost a €1 million to rebuild its premises. Will the Minister's fund allow them to rebuild their premises for €1 million? Will 100% be available to those premises? Is that what the Minister is talking about? If it is not, that is just waffle. They need to know and they need certainty. It is not acceptable that they have been left in this situation. There are concerns about staff facilities. The Minister spoke about relocation. That is the second time when I have raised this issue that the Minister mentioned relocation. What the community wants and what parents and children want is to be able to go to the facilities in their communities. It is not their fault that the buildings are crumbling. It is actually the State's fault. It is the Government's fault that those types of blocks were allowed to come onto the market and that the money they raised, got and fought for is now worthless.

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