Mr. Derek Rafferty:

I thank the Chair. I thank the committee for today's invitation to discuss the issue of mortgageability in the context of the defective concrete blocks, DCB, scheme. I am principal officer in the Department's housing remediation unit and in that role I lead on housing remediation matters, including DCB.

I am accompanied today by my colleague, John Wickham, who is the senior adviser in building standards.

The enhanced defective concrete blocks scheme was launched in July 2023. It provides grant payments to affected homeowners whose dwellings were damaged by the use of defective concrete blocks in their construction. Four designated local authority areas currently are under the scheme, namely, Donegal, Mayo, Clare and Limerick. The Housing Agency plays a key role in the scheme by determining if an affected home meets the threshold to enter the scheme and what remediation and grant payment a homeowner is eligible for. The grant amounts cover 100% of the work required to remediate a home, up to a maximum grant of €420,000 depending on the work required. The DCB grant scheme is not a compensation or redress scheme. Rather, it is a grant scheme of last resort put in place by the Government to voluntarily assist homeowners in a difficult position with no other apparent options to remediate damage to their homes. Since the commencement of the scheme last July, there have been 2,000 applications that are at various stages of the process. Local authorities administer the scheme and have been working with the Housing Agency intensively to process applications and issue grant approvals.

The current scheme has been legislated for following extensive consultations with all relevant stakeholders. The Minister, departmental officials and the relevant local councils have worked closely with affected homeowners on the development of the enhanced scheme. At the time of the scheme launch, the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, established an implementation steering group comprised of officials from the relevant local authorities, the Department, the Housing Agency and the homeowners' liaison officer. Part of the group's remit was to produce a six-month report. This report was not a review of the fundamental terms and conditions of the scheme as set down in the 2022 Act. It was a report on how the implementation of the scheme has been progressing since it launched in 2023. The Minister recently received this report on the operation of the scheme for the first six months, from July to December 2023, and is satisfied with the progress being made. The group made a small number of recommendations based on its assessment of the first six months of the scheme's operation and these are receiving appropriate attention. To ensure the views of as broad an array of stakeholders as possible, a sub-group was established within the existing group structure to examine matters relating to the financial aspects of the scheme. Representatives from Engineers Ireland, the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland, Insurance Ireland, the Banking and Payments Federation Ireland, homeowner representatives from each of the four local authority areas, officials from the Department of Finance and relevant local authorities attended meetings in the Custom House and online in January and April this year.

At the most recent meeting, I confirmed that the Department is working on updated guidance that will enable homeowners to access funding for certain pieces of work at an earlier stage in the process. This would include costs associated with the competent building professional fees for completion of the remedial works plan and management of the contractor procurement where a homeowner has yet to engage a contractor. This approach was developed specifically to address the concerns raised by homeowners at the January meeting where they confirmed funding was required at an earlier stage to meet professional fees.

I am to have this updated guidance with local authorities in the coming weeks. The Department is aware that a recent focus of concern has been the technical issues surrounding the IS 465 standard dealing with testing and categorisation of damaged buildings incorporating concrete blocks containing certain deleterious materials. There has been a significant amount of discussion on the developing scientific research in this area. IS 465 is being reviewed by the National Standards Authority of Ireland, NSAI. An interagency defective concrete blocks technical matters steering group known as NSAI/TC73 has been established to support and inform the NSAI standardisation programme about technical issues. The steering group includes representatives from the Department, the NSAI, Geological Survey Ireland, GSI, the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, SEAI, and the Housing Agency. The steering group has agreed on a process to specify, procure, fund and manage research projects. The GSI has established a procurement framework for the provision of laboratory analysis services to support Geological Survey Ireland's Irish construction materials project on concrete products.

A strategic oversight group has also been established by the Department of housing to monitor progress and to oversee the work of NSAI/TC73. This group will also ensure each participating organisation is supporting the NSAI to deliver on actions as expeditiously as possible and to remove any barriers to progress. Members of the strategic oversight group include the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, the NSAI, the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications, the GSI, the Housing Agency and it is led by the Department of housing. The group met in December 2023 and again in March of this year and a further meeting is scheduled for later this month. NSAI/TC63, which is the concrete block committee responsible for IS 465 and on which homeowners are represented, has received preliminary findings on pyrrhotite oxidation and is evaluating this research.

It should be noted that a wider substantial programme of research and analysis is ongoing and adequate time is required by the committee members to facilitate careful consideration of all relevant technical input. Any meaningful evidence-based revision to the standard by the NSAI is reliant on the delivery of the final outputs of key research projects. These include those from the GSI framework partners, the full evaluation by the relevant technical committee and the subsequent completion of the standardisation process in accordance with the NSAI's procedures. The GSI research partners have further tasks to complete and final outputs and conclusions from this research are expected in quarter 4 of 2024 and quarter 1 of 2025 and are critical to support the full revision of the standard. My colleague and I are happy to answer as many questions as possible.