Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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88. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government with regard to the scheme for the remediation of defects in apartments and duplexes, the procedures that are in place if a homeowner wants to undertake remediation works but other homeowners in a housing complex do not; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3534/23]

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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101. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if he will provide a detailed timeline for the completion of works under the defects scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3657/23]

Seán Haughey (Dublin Bay North, Fianna Fail)
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103. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if he will outline the proposed approach to support remediation of defects in apartments and duplexes; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3518/23]

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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114. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if he will provide details of the developments to be covered by the defects scheme and an approximate timeline on when each development will be remediated; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3658/23]

Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail)
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138. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the amount of financial support that will be available under the scheme for the remediation of defects in apartments and duplexes; if homeowners who have done remediation works will be entitled to retrospective financial support under the scheme for the remediation of defects in apartments and duplexes; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3675/23]

Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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158. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if the recently announced Celtic tiger building defects redress scheme will apply retrospectively; if the same terms will be extended to homeowners in County Mayo and other counties effected by mica and pyrite; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3718/23]

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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161. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if he will outline the person or body that will be eligible for financial support with remediation works in apartments and duplexes; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3711/23]

Joe Carey (Clare, Fine Gael)
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We have a substitution request. Deputy Lawless will introduce Question No. 88 on behalf of Deputy O'Dea.

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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At the outset I acknowledge the good work done by the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, and his team, the Minister of State and the Department in introducing this scheme which is badly needed. It has been some years or indeed decades in the making. It is delivering a programme for Government commitment so I acknowledge that and really welcome it. It follows on from the mica scheme where similar relief was provided and extends that to urban areas and duplexes etc. Initially I suppose-----

Joe Carey (Clare, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy has 30 seconds remaining.

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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Yes. The devil is always in the detail and there are a couple of questions my colleagues and I have. My question at the outset is that there are scenarios, and I have come across them myself, where in a multi-unit development one or more owners want to progress works and other owners say they are okay and stand back. How does that get addressed both practically and in terms of within the scheme?

I have a second question and I do not know if I will get to it later. How does that work?

Joe Carey (Clare, Fine Gael)
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We will bring in the Minister who has six minutes to respond.

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 88, 101, 103, 114, 138, 158, 161 and 220 together.

I thank all the Deputies for their questions and the number of Deputies asking shows how important this matter is in relation to legacy defects. I know Deputies of all parties and none have been working hard on this.

We know there are significant legacy defects in a large number of apartments and duplexes and as a result many owners of apartments and duplexes face really difficult and dire financial situations alongside, and we cannot forget this, the personal stress they undergo on a daily basis that is caused when defects arise in their buildings. The Government and I are absolutely committed to helping those whose lives have been impacted by this issue. The programme for Government sets out a number of commitments in respect of this important policy area of addressing building defects. These include a commitment to examine defects in housing, having regard to the matters at hand. In this regard I did receive Government approval on 18 January last to draft legislation to support the remediation of fire safety, structural safety and water ingress defects in purpose-built apartment buildings including duplexes constructed between 1991 and 2013. I established a working group within two months of my appointment as Minister. The working group did superb work and that involved all stakeholders and again I want to commend in particular the residents, the Construction Defects Alliance and the Apartment Owners Network for their incredible work. Others, such as the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland, SCSI, and the local authorities really fed into this. For the first time we have a significant survey of the scale of the defects. Some 28,000 homes were surveyed for the work we did. The working group report came to me at the end of July, I brought it to Cabinet in September and then I brought forward recommendations last week.

It will be a fully-funded scheme. It has to be on a full building basis. That is one of the challenges. The funding has to go to the owner-management company. With an apartment block, particularly in the area of fire defects, but also water ingress and structural issues, one cannot just do three quarters of the apartments in the block. All of them have to be done. I am optimistic about is that around 12% of apartments and duplexes have already been done. Where residents and owner-management companies found they had very serious issues they went ahead and they remediated and they are carrying the cost of that. On the Government decision I sought on 18 January, I can again confirm to the Dáil that costs already incurred will be covered under the scheme for certified work. That is important that it is certified in the overall context of the scheme.

Around 32% of these apartments, between 62,500 and up to 100,000 units, are already in the process of getting work done or about to contract it. I want to say to people to go ahead and do that work and not to delay. There are very serious issues relating to people's safety as well. Those costs will be covered on a full-building basis and fully funded also. We will stand the scheme up and it will take most of this year to get the legislation and regulation together about the workings of this scheme. The Housing Agency will be centrally involved in this also and we will utilise the expertise it brings in the area of mica defective block and also pyrite and infill. We will resource the local authorities. The local authority fire services will carry out the surveys and certify works also. I want to move this on but it is important for residents to know that this Government has their back on this and we want this work to continue. I will work with all members of the Dáil and Seanad to try to expedite the legislation as quickly as possible. This scheme will be with us for a few years and as with mica and defective block we need to get it right. Right now people can proceed, it is fully funded and we are committed to ensuring home owners not only get their homes remediated but have an opportunity to get their lives back on track. I have engaged directly with them also and was at a webinar recently with over 400 members of different management companies right across the country advising of what I will bring forward, which I have done. It is something I have seen in my area of Dublin-Fingal. I have friends, constituents and I know people across the country who have been affected by this. We will move apace on this and we welcome the input of all Deputies who have shown an interest in this already.

If I could say in the interests of the House, we received this morning, and it is a pity Deputy O'Callaghan is not here, the CSO figures for the housing completion figures for last year. We are talking about the first year of Housing for All. Last year, 29,851 homes were completed in 2022 which is significantly above the target the Government set of 24,600. We completed 9,184 in quarter four, a 31% increase on 2022. They are the highest figures for a quarter since the CSO began collating them in 2011. The increase in completions is 45% up on 2021. Housing for All is taking hold and in areas of new-build we can see that and we are as committed to tackling and grasping the nettle in relation to defects, both in apartments and duplexes and in relation to defective block in parts of our country also.

Joe Carey (Clare, Fine Gael)
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A number of Members have submitted two questions. Deputy Lawless has two similar questions and is entitled to two minutes as a supplementary, as it Deputy Paul Murphy.

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister for the outline of the scheme and indeed for the scheme itself which is very welcome. On one of the more positive aspects, as he has mentioned, I was concerned as to the retrospective application where some owners may have gone out on a limb and at their own cost, their own time and dime as they say. It may have been a struggle to do so but they took action themselves. It is very fair and right that they are included and that there is a retrospective application. I welcome that.

One of my questions, and I have experienced it myself in assisting homeowners, is where there are common areas, a shared terrace or roof or fire walling, boundary walls etc. that are impacted. I am not sure how the scheme applies to where homeowner one says they want to invoke the scheme and engage and homeowner two for whatever reason says they do not want workers coming in and are happy as they are. It seems a bit difficult and I am not sure how that is envisaged in the scheme.

Another question is in terms of a point of contact. There is an agency being established and I know the legislation still has to go through the Houses but who do people contact at this stage or in the near future if they have issues and want to begin to engage. They are two practical questions.

It is really important, and I know this is in the scheme, but what is the detail to ensure it does not happen again? We have seen bad practices and bad history play out of the last couple of decades and in the lifetime of the scheme and even before and probably after the period 1991 to 2013. What do we do to prevent it happening again? I know there are very welcome things like a register of tradesmen, but what about recourse? The Exchequer is on the hook all the time it seems for the remediation schemes and it is right the State should step in as a guarantor of last resort but what about the people who actually built these buildings, who developed them, worked on them, funded them, financed them and who advised on them? There were architects, consultants, planners etc. What is the recourse to them, to say they did the crime now do the time? How does that work and is it envisaged as part of this funding?

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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All of the apartment and duplex owners I am in touch with were very happy to see that a scheme was announced. They have been campaigning for this for a long time as the only just and workable solution. They were also struck by the lack of detail and we still have a lack of detail today and they know, unfortunately, that the people affected by mica were promised a 100% redress scheme more than a year ago and they are still waiting for that and in reality the small print of that scheme means that it will be substantially less than 100%. They are determined to stand together with everybody. Everybody affected by defects needs to be given 100% redress and then we need to go after the people responsible.

I have a few questions on the details. First, when will the further details be announced? Separate to the legislation, the Minister can outline how it is going to work in much more detail than has been done so far. Second, I take the Minister's point that people should not delay. They should continue. There are serious safety issues and work must be done. Emergency funding was mentioned. Can that be rolled out quicker? It will cost people who need to get work done in an apartment block €20,000 per person. Most people cannot afford this. As it currently stands, that is still not going to happen because most people will not be able to afford it. Therefore, emergency measures must be put in place whereby owners' management companies, OMCs, can access funds. For example, there could be a short-term scheme of the Housing Finance Agency giving low-cost or zero-interest loans to OMCs knowing they will get the money back from the scheme in the future. That would mean works could proceed. I got a text from a person who received a threatening lawyer's letter from an agency saying the person had to pay up. For things such as this, it is still not going to work.

How will things other than fire defects be judged? Will defective balconies be included? I refer to houses in estates that were built at the same time as apartments and duplexes and are affected by the same sort of issues. Will, for example, balconies also be included in this scheme?

Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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Question No. 158 is on retrospectiveness. I very much welcomed the Minister when he said retrospectiveness would be considered in the building defects redress scheme, as did the people in Mayo and Donegal. I want to tease that out further with the Minister. He said earlier that it was provided the work was certified. Will he better explain what we need to do? We need to give homeowners, with whom I spoke this morning, guidance as to how they can prepare in terms of the audit trail that might be needed. We are only talking about a very small number of houses. We have fought for the inclusion of retrospectiveness for years, as has the Minister's colleague in Mayo, the Minister of State, Deputy Calleary. We are very much at one with this. We want to get it right and for homeowners to be prepared and have everything ready for when it is available.

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputies for their questions which I will go through starting with Deputy Conway-Walsh, if the other Deputies do not mind. As I mentioned earlier, and as I discussed with both the Minister, Deputy McConalogue, and the Minister of State, Deputy Calleary, a very small number of properties under the defective concrete block scheme may have had work done already. What I said about certification is that a qualified engineer has to certify that the work is of a required standard, that it is invoiced correctly and that a paper trail in relation to that work being done exists. We are finalising the regulations on the defective concrete block scheme. I will engage with residents through the homeowner liaison next week to show them the draft regulations in the Deputy's own county, in Donegal and other affected counties.

It is a national scheme. It was recently said on RTÉ that there were counties that were locked out of this scheme. That is absolutely not the case. The legislation we passed in the Dáil provides for other counties to be added by way of regulation. For example, we added County Clare under the old scheme, which an Cathaoirleach Gníomhach, Deputy Carey, is well aware and for which he campaigned. The scheme is open. The local authority will put the submission together and say, for example, that it has 30 homes in Wexford. That submission comes to us and we will assess it and add them to the scheme. We will work through that in the coming weeks. I want the regulations on defective concrete blocks published by the end of February, subject to all the stakeholders agreeing.

I will go in reverse order and in response to Deputy Paul Murphy's question, there is a very good document on frequently asked questions, FAQs, which I sent to many of the OMCs, about what happens next. What I will do is establish an implementation group, which worked well on defective concrete blocks, to work through these issues, particularly emergency funding. I am not closed to that at all. In some areas, we allowed that in the defective concrete block scheme such as for immediate safety issues. I do not envisage the use of loans, to be honest. I do not want to complicate it too much. It will take us a year to get this through. I expect legislation will take a year to progress. I will do it as quickly as possible. I will ask for the co-operation of Opposition Deputies. Indeed, Government Deputies have been heavily engaged in this. The scheme is fully funded.

In respect of Deputy Lawless's question, some 12% of apartments and duplexes have been remediated and one third are in the process of this. We may from time to time come across a person who does not want to engage with that. However, all common areas are included in this because one cannot remediate an apartment block without dealing with its common areas and we are going to do that. We have some experience of that in the context of pyrite in infill. There could be an investor living abroad who does not want to engage but we get through it. It relates to a very small percentage of cases.

On legal recourse, I am establishing a senior counsel review. Fundamentally, the reason this is happening is because of very poor workmanship and, in some instances, bad materials. Those who were responsible know who they are. They have a moral responsibility to contribute to the scheme. I am looking at legal avenues - it will not be easy; it will be complex - as to how we could seek recompense in that area. There has been a market failure. As a Deputy who represents an area that has been plagued by defects such as these and pyrite before that, I believe the State must step in on behalf of its citizens. All these citizens, be they in Mayo, Donegal, north Dublin or Kildare, are taxpayers. It is a good use of the resources we have. It is important for people to get their lives back on track.

On a point already raised, I want people to continue to work they are doing. The implementation group will be established very soon. I will meet homeowner representatives next week to structure that within my Department, work through some of these issues and move it forward as quickly as possible. I will have another webinar shortly, as I did before Christmas which people found useful, to which all OMCs will be invited. This is a priority for us.

As to the question of what else is covered, it includes water ingress and structural defects. They are based on the original build. As for maintenance or lack of maintenance over time, a lift that is broken because it was not maintained would not be included. It pertains to apartments and duplexes. We are very clear about the working group report. It does not, at this stage, cover houses within the development. It is apartments and duplexes because that is where the occurrence of this problem is predominant. We have done the most extensive survey ever, which included some 28,000 homes.

Not only have the homeowner representatives been incredibly helpful, so too have many other stakeholders, such as Engineers Ireland and the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland. The Oireachtas joint committee of the previous Dáil did a very good piece of work on this. I am optimistic and hopeful that we will be able to work as a collective to move this forward as quickly as we can.

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister for his detailed response. He addressed most of the points I raised. If he does not have time to respond further, he might take the following point away as a consideration. Management companies will play a central role in this, which is set out in the draft legislation and the scheme. There are still several legacy issues with management companies around the country. Some have been convened and some have been incorporated. Some operate well and some, unfortunately, operate in a dysfunctional manner. I saw the situation of an apartment owner in my constituency who had to evacuate the apartment for a couple of years while remediation was being carried out. They sought to charge the individual management fees for the privilege of renting accommodation elsewhere while his apartment was vacant because they had constructed it incorrectly. Therefore, several issue have arisen.

Multi-unit developments legislation was brought in around 2014 and is probably due for update. I am not sure if there are plans for management company legislation in terms of tidying up the whole sphere of how management companies operate, how they are convened and how they are accountable, because they will play a central role in this scheme going forward. Perhaps there is an opportunity to look at that space and tidy things up. There are a lot of legacy issues there.

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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First, this is not a few bad apples in the construction industry when you are dealing with 50% to 80% of all apartments and duplexes built between 1991 and 2013. As it was happening in a widespread way, in terms of recouping the costs, is there not a case for a tax on the profits of the construction industry responsible for this problem?

Second, if the Minister has time, will he expand on what it means for the retrospective work to be certified? He is talking about it being certified now, retrospectively, by the fire brigade saying this was necessary.

Third, if homes in developments that were done as a whole are not included in these schemes, we will just have to come back to this problem. Why not include the homes in these developments, which include apartments and duplexes, now?

Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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I thank the Minister for his clarifications around retrospectiveness. We will work with him to get that right. One thing I want to flag is that it would be grossly unjust if there were to be a time limit or an arbitrary cut-off point on that.

Once the work can be certified and assessed in advance, testing has occurred and you have the engineer's report, there should be no time limit on it.