Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

In recent hours, the online news publication, The Ditch, has revealed further controversy surrounding the Government's failing defective blocks scheme. It has emerged that in more than 20 cases, a Donegal County Council-operated portal had altered the recommendations of the homeowners' engineers. What I find interesting, or perhaps more appropriately described as disturbing, is that in each case the alteration, which Donegal County Council claims is a minor technical glitch, resulted in the original engineering recommendation aligning with a downgraded option recommended by the Housing Agency-appointed engineers' desktop appraisals. It would be naive to attribute this to a mere coincidence.

There is also the statement from Engineers Ireland at the Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach on the issue of IS 465 earlier this year, that it is "the view of many engineers that the existing standard is no longer fit-for-purpose where the mechanism of deterioration remains uncertain and developments in the scientific understanding of this issue must be appropriately considered." Further, they said:

A survey conducted in March 2024 of members of Engineers Ireland's IS 465 register has shown that 75% of engineers employed by homeowners have experienced having a recommendation for option 1 revised to another option by a framework engineer employed by the Housing Agency with respect to the same property.

The Taoiseach can see how this is leading to frustration among residents of County Donegal, who have had to engage with the scheme despite its many other flaws. I will not list them here again on the record if the Taoiseach promises to reciprocate and not recite again the standard reply so often delivered unthinkingly, without reference to the particular question, by his predecessors in that seat and by the Minister since the announcement of a so-called enhanced scheme.

The science now confirms the primary problem is internal sulphate attack, yet three years on from the trumpeted scheme announcement, we do not have a date for the review of IS 465. These instances, together with a litany of others such as a lack of proper engagement with homeowners' representatives on the unresolved issue of mortgageability, have contributed to confidence being undermined in the whole scheme in the eyes of those affected homeowners. Taoiseach, can you acknowledge that you are hearing the frustrations of my constituents in Donegal and accept that confidence has been eroded to a significant extent? Will you commit to giving a definitive date for when a revised and-or replaced IS 465 will be published so they can have some clarity?

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