James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

On behalf of my colleague, the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, I thank all Deputies who have contributed to this debate. We can all agree that many homeowners and residents of apartments and duplexes have found themselves in a difficult and stressful position when defects have arisen in respect of their buildings through no fault of their own. As the Minister said on a number of occasions, this is a nettle that this Government is determined to grasp and we are committed to providing support to affected homeowners. Given the personal impact of these problems on the homeowners involved, the Minister would like to reach a broad political consensus on these vital issues. In this regard, he has written to the Opposition leaders requesting their specific written input on the options laid out in the report of the working group to examine defects in housing and any additional steps they believe should be undertaken to meet these challenges. The Minister would like to thank those who have responded to date and would encourage those who have yet to do so to submit their proposals for his consideration as soon as possible. The Minister would also like to see some practical details included in the proposals and has requested, in particular, that relevant detail on administration, implementation and costings accompany the proposals.

This Government fully acknowledges the calls that homeowners and residents need support at the earliest possible opportunity and I assure the House that the Government is committed to addressing this issue as a matter of priority. The Government's commitment is demonstrated by the fact that one of the Minister's first actions when he took office was to establish the working group to examine the defects in housing. In response to Deputy Ó Broin, I can say that the regulations for the defective concrete blocks grant scheme will be published in January. The establishment of the working group was an important initial step as it was the first time that we could establish the scale of the issue involved. I reiterate the Minister's thanks to all members of the working group for the considerable work they undertook in a relatively short period of time. The scale of the issue we are trying to address is quite substantial. It is worth reiterating that the number of apartments and duplexes constructed between 1991 and 2013 affected by one or more of fire safety, structural safety and water ingress defects is likely to range between 50% and 80%. That equates to between 62,500 and 100,000 apartments or duplexes built within this time period. The average cost of undertaking the remediation of defects is likely to be approximately €25,000 per apartment or duplex, which translates to a potential overall total remediation of between approximately €1.56 billion and €2.5 billion. It is no small task to determine how best to put in place support for affected homeowners in a considered and structured way. To this end, as the Minister informed the Dáil earlier today, a number of steps have been taken to progress the implementation of the working group's report to ensure that the affected homeowners are provided with the support they need.

We have taken a number of steps to progress the implementation of the working group's report to ensure the affected homeowners are provided with the support they need. This includes the establishment of an interdepartmental and agency group, the establishment of an advisory group to develop a code of practice and considerable consultation with relevant stakeholders and homeowners' representative groups. He intends to bring a memorandum to Government next week, which will seek Government approval of the next stage in the process. As is evident from the detail that has been outlined to the House, a considerable amount of work is being undertaken and this reflects the urgency this Government believes is necessary to address the issue for affected homeowners. This is in the context of the finding of the working group that there is no single cause of defects. The working group determined that defects tend to arise due to a variety of design, product inspection, supervision and workmanship issues occurring either in isolation or in various combinations. However, as recognised by the working group in its report, given that the overall potential scale and estimated cost to fix the problem is so considerable it will take many years to address all buildings affected. Resources and works will therefore need to be prioritised. In this regard it would not be appropriate for those in charge of defective buildings to delay the undertaking of any remediation work that is considered necessary from a life safety point of view. It is worth remembering that persons having control of premises, including apartment and duplex buildings, have statutory fire safety responsibilities under the fire services Act. The person having control may be an individual person, a number of persons or an organisation such as an owners’ management company, approved housing body, real estate investment trust, a housing authority or property services company. In general the person having control is required to guard against the outbreak of fire on the premises and to ensure as far as reasonably practicable the safety of persons on the premises in the event of an outbreak of fire.

Given the scale of the apartments potentially affected, the defects working group report advised on the importance of planning, prioritising and adequately resourcing any programme to address defects. In this light the Minister, Deputy O’Brien, is working to bring forward specific proposals to Cabinet followed by new legislation, interim measures and administrative processes to respond to the report of the working group to examine defects in housing as quickly as possible. I will conclude by reiterating this Government’s commitment to assist affected homeowners who need support to address defects that have manifested in their apartments and duplexes through no fault of their own. This has been a useful debate. The Minister, Deputy O'Brien, looks forward to updating colleagues in the Dáil following the approval of the memorandum to Government which he plans to bring to Cabinet next week.

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