Charles Ward (Donegal, 100% Redress Party)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I move:

That Dáil Éireann:

notes that: — chartered engineers employed or contracted by the Housing Agency act as agents of the State, exercising statutory functions that determine the rights of homeowners, and that the Government remains legally and constitutionally accountable for their decisions, including unlawful downgrades from full to partial remediation;

— appeals against such downgrades have been left unresolved for over two years, leaving families in unsafe homes, in breach of the State's duty to provide timely remedies, and that justice requires the reinstatement of the original engineer's determinations;

— the appeals system is slow, opaque, and structurally flawed, with panels dominated by legal rather than technical expertise, producing procedural rather than substantive decisions on safety, and that Government cannot disclaim responsibility for a statutory process it created and funds;

— families who applied under earlier versions of the scheme are now unfairly penalised, contrary to Article 40.1 of the Constitution, and must be granted retrospective access to improved supports to ensure equal treatment before the law;

— presenting the scheme as a "grant" rather than 100 per cent redress imposes crippling financial burdens, excludes essential works, and forces families into debt, while families under the Leinster pyrite scheme received full redress and State-managed remediation, highlighting unlawful inequality of treatment;

— households impacted by defective blocks are living in unsafe, deteriorating homes under intolerable financial and psychological stress, in breach of their rights under Articles 40 and 43 of Bunreacht na hÉireann and under the European Union Charter of Fundamental Rights;

— reliance on a superficial damage threshold under I.S.465:2018 is scientifically unsound, arbitrarily excluding many homes with concealed structural failure, and that Engineers Ireland has confirmed the standard is unfit for purpose;

— consistency and fairness demand a coordinated approach to semi-detached and multi-unit developments, as it is illogical and unjust for one home to be demolished while an attached property sharing the same defective materials is left standing; and

— the crisis extends far beyond private homes to schools, health centres, community buildings, critical infrastructure, and cemeteries, requiring urgent extension of remediation measures to safeguard public safety and essential services; further notes that: — "An Earthquake in Slow Motion: The mental health impact of the defective concrete crisis", a study conducted by Oisin Keenan and Professor Karen Kirby at Ulster University has highlighted the significant psychological effects of the crisis, including trauma, stress, and long-term mental health harm, confirming that redress must address wellbeing as well as structural safety;

— families are left in damaging limbo by years of delay — waiting on appeals, technical reviews, test results, administrative processes, and the revision of I.S.465:2018 — and that this uncertainty is itself causing profound stress and harm;

— affected homeowners are denied insurance, resale value, and mortgage access until full remediation is guaranteed, perpetuating economic exclusion and insecurity;

— requiring homeowners to act as project managers imposes impossible burdens and exposes them to gouging, and that an end-to-end State-managed option must be made available to guarantee transparency, cost control, and effective delivery;

— partial remediation continues despite the acknowledged need to revise I.S.465:2018, forcing families into unsafe works and exposing the State to charges of negligence, recklessness, and breach of its constitutional duty to protect citizens;

— homeowners affected by defective concrete are being unjustly taxed twice, having paid Value Added Tax (VAT) on the original construction and now again on reconstruction despite being blameless for the defects;

— the concrete levy imposes an additional burden on homeowners rather than the industry responsible and that a significant portion of the grant scheme is effectively returned to the exchequer through VAT receipts;

— homeowners whose properties were partially constructed prior to the introduction of the Defective Concrete Blocks Grant Scheme are unjustly excluded from eligibility, despite having built in full compliance with building regulations, and that these individuals have suffered severe financial loss through no fault of their own, due to the State's failure to enforce material standards;

— the profound fear, anxiety, and trauma endured by families living in structurally unsafe homes during red weather warnings and storms;

— the absence of any statutory redress scheme for social and affordable housing affected by defective materials, and the need for the Government to immediately establish such a scheme to ensure full parity of protection and remediation across all housing tenures; and

— the State, having failed in its duty of regulation, carries an unavoidable liability to its citizens, and that only an independent statutory authority, accountable to the Oireachtas, with full oversight of delivery, standards, funding, and contractors, can ensure justice; and calls on the Government to: — immediately cease all partial remediation until the revised I.S.465:2018 standard is published and adopted, and to ground the scheme in the best available scientific evidence on pyrrhotite, sulphate attack, and concealed structural failure;

— reinstate the original determinations of engineers unlawfully downgraded by the Housing Agency, ensuring families are not trapped indefinitely in unsafe homes;

— legislate to guarantee retrospective support for all families who applied under earlier versions of the scheme, securing equality before the law;

— establish an independent statutory authority, accountable to the Oireachtas, with full responsibility for delivery, oversight, transparency, and enforcement;

— provide an optional end-to-end State-managed remediation model to relieve families of the financial and administrative burden;

— extend remediation supports to affected schools, health centres, community facilities, infrastructure, and cemeteries;

— provide dedicated mental health supports for affected families, embedding psychological assistance within the remediation process;

— set binding timelines for all decisions, publish a clear roadmap with deadlines for scientific and legislative updates, and guarantee that no family is left indefinitely in unsafe and deteriorating homes;

— immediately bring forward proposals to reform the enhanced Defective Concrete Blocks Grant Scheme so that affected homeowners are not taxed for rebuilding their homes; to remove or offset VAT and levy costs arising from remediation works; and to ensure that the financial responsibility of this crisis is placed on those responsible for the defects within the construction and materials industry;

— urgently intervene with insurance and lenders to ensure that homeowners affected by defective concrete retain full access to insurance and mortgage protection, and that they do not bear any additional insurance costs or penalties compared with homeowners who are unaffected, as no family should face financial loss, insecurity, or incur extra costs as a result of a crisis they did not cause;

— extend the scheme's eligibility to include all unfinished or uninhabitable dwellings without delay;

— immediately establish an emergency support plan, including pre-approved temporary accommodation or hotel arrangements, to uphold its health and safety duty of care, protect families from harm, and prevent the physical and psychological damage caused by unsafe living conditions;

— ensure that forthcoming legislative amendments to the scheme deliver full redress, retrospective equality, an independent statutory authority, and a scientifically sound replacement of I.S.465:2018, as failure to legislate comprehensively will prolong suffering and expose the State to constitutional and legal challenge; and

— declare the defective concrete crisis a national emergency, mobilising the full powers of the State to vindicate the constitutional and human rights of affected citizens.

This morning I table this motion not just in my own name but with the support of my Opposition colleagues across the Chamber. Together we speak with one voice not because this is political but because this is moral. This is constitutional and this is urgent. For years now, thousands of families have been left to live in homes that are cracking, sinking and breaking apart not due to negligence on their part but due to shortcuts and because the State failed to regulate. The response we received was one word, "Wait". Wait for legislation, wait for appeals, wait for revised standards, wait for a technical panel, and wait for permission to rebuild their lives. Let us be clear. Waiting is not a side effect of this scheme; it is the scheme. Every time the Government defers and every time it announces another review, it is choosing not to act.

Waiting is the policy and the delay is not neutral. It is violent because the homes are collapsing around people. The mental health damage is now becoming apparent. Children are sleeping in bedrooms filled with black mould. Tonight, like every night, their health is deteriorating. Elderly people are waking in fear that the walls will cave in this winter.

What is even more insulting is that the delay is spin. The Government reassures itself that it is doing enough, and not just that it is doing enough, but it is also trying to convince the country that it is doing enough. It is doing nothing. The Government wants to shape the narrative to tell the public that it is generous, that there is a scheme that is working, and that families are being supported. This is a PR curtain with a darker strategy.

Implicit in every response to me on the floor of this House is the portrayal of homeowners as being ungrateful. It is in the language that Ministers use. The Minister, Deputy Browne, and his Government have said that this scheme is generous and the biggest in the history of the State, and so the public are being forced to wonder why nothing is ever enough for these people. The truth is sinister. The Government has turned asking for a safe home into an unreasonable demand and has made families feel like a burden. They should not apologise for expecting the same treatment given to others in Leinster. This is not just spin; it is actual gaslighting. The Government does not want to fix the scheme but it wants to manage the optics. It wants the headlines but not the hard truth. The Government wants to wear compassion in front of the cameras. Well, we will see and we will not be silenced.

Let us stop pretending the scheme has just a few flaws. It is broken by design. More than 82 amendments were proposed to fix it and the Ministers had the information needed to provide a functional scheme. This included information from unwilling experts in this crisis who are the actual homeowners but the Government did not want the scheme to work and so it discarded the amendments and bypassed pre-legislative scrutiny at its peril. Engineers' original determinations have been unlawfully downgraded. Appeals are taking years with families stuck in unsafe homes. Essential works are excluded. The families with homes kept together with plasters are being told they do not meet the damage threshold, all while the Ministers say the Government will not be found wanting. Let me be clear, the Government has already been found wanting in compassion, in competence and in basic human decency to the people who are affected with this plight. The Government will be found wanting in law. This is not a redress. This is obstruction and bureaucracy is weaponised to delay justice until people give up or die waiting.

The human cost is staggering. An Earthquake in Slow Motion is the title of an Ulster University report on the mental health crisis we are going through. It documents the trauma, the anxiety and depression, the mothers on medication, children regressing, and families actually sleeping in cars. Some homes are so toxic with damp and black mould that respiratory issues have now become normalised. The Government is making people sick with this failure of a scheme.

The Government has taxed them twice; once when they bought and built their homes and again when they tried to fix them. They did not break them and it is not their fault. Then the Government adds a further concrete levy on top of the rebuild. The Government has made them project managers of their own trauma and still it has called it 100% redress countless times. That, quite frankly, is insulting. Let us be clear. This is not a moral failure. It is a legal and constitutional failure. It breaches Article 40.1, which states that all citizens shall be held equal before the law. It breaches Article 40.3 on the protection of property. It breaches Article 40 on bodily integrity. It breaches the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights on the right to home, dignity and effective redress. Multiple legal cases are now under way and Europe is investigating the Government's failures. The evidence is mounting and cases will grow because the law is not on the Government's side.

The Government gave full redress to families affected by pyrite in Leinster but in Donegal, Mayo, Clare and throughout the country families are told to take less, pay more and be grateful. That is not a policy. That is simply discrimination. The Government could act but has chosen not to. It must stop pretending its hands are tied. Time and again when it wants to act quickly it has proven that it can. It can move emergency legislation in days, it can bail out banks overnight, and it can create statutory bodies from nothing when it suits its agenda, so stop telling us that it is complex and stop telling us to be patient. For the love of all that is good, stop telling us to wait.

The truth is that the Government is refusing to do the right thing. Even the name of the scheme as the defective concrete block scheme reeks of a deliberate misdirection. It is not just a poor choice of words; it is a political strategy to reduce the catastrophic structural failures and to turn it into a branding exercise to sanitise science, to ignore sulphate attack analysis, pyrrhotite and crumbling foundations and to strip away the truth that entire homes, not just blocks, are defective. Everything is defective.

This is not just about blocks; it is about lives.

The language used by the Government reveals its intent to downplay the damage, minimise the State’s role and shift as much of the financial burden as possible back onto blameless homeowners who are traumatised. The Government did not just name the scheme; it named the scapegoat. This motion, supported by Members across the Opposition, demands the immediate suspension of all partial remediation until the revised IS 465:2018 standard is adopted; the reinstatement of original engineer assessments for the unlawfully downgraded; and retrospective equality for all families who applied under earlier versions of the scheme. These people applied for a 10% retrospective payment, but the Government put a cap and a date in there. Now they are left stranded. Some 43 families have been abandoned.

The motion also calls for a new independent statutory authority, accountable to the Oireachtas, to oversee delivery and enforcement; a State-managed end-to-end option for those unable to self-manage; and the removal of VAT and levies. Families must not pay to fix what the State failed to prevent. The motion also seeks the full extension of the scheme to public buildings, schools, hospitals and cemeteries; the embedding in the process of mental health supports; the setting of binding timelines and clear legal deadlines because justice delayed is justice denied; and the establishment of a scheme for social and affordable housing. Side-by-side building is needed. This must be recognised as a national emergency because that is exactly what it is.

Most people in this House are not losing sleep in a defective home, but I am and thousands of my constituents are. While Members sit in their warm offices and comfortable homes, families across this country are waking up in bedrooms soaked with damp, watching their walls disintegrate around them and wondering if tonight’s wind will bring down the ceiling again. They are breathing in black mould and their children are coughing through the night, and still the Government will not even give them the dignity of being believed. They are exhausted, afraid and suffering in silence not because they want to, but because the Government has refused to listen. I tell the Government this: I have listened and I am listening. I have stood in their homes. I have seen the despair in their eyes. I have heard the stories they are too ashamed to share. I have seen mental and marital breakdowns throughout Donegal. They have been rife. We have been living in an absolute disaster zone.

The Government may see this as a problem to manage, but I see citizens to defend. Our citizens have been abandoned. They are not asking for favours. They are asking for what they paid for: a safe home. The then Government abandoned them by failing to enforce concrete regulations and the current Government is abandoning them again by failing to provide effective redress. It must put an end to this abandonment. I say to every member of the Government sitting silently in the background: if your home looked like theirs or mine, you would have moved heaven and earth to fix this long ago. It is not your home. They are not your children in hospital. It is not your spouse on antidepressants. It is not your roof sagging or falling down. The Government waits and waits and it tells us constantly to wait. We cannot and will not wait. From this moment forward, we will see who is standing with us and who is not. The country is watching and let history record this. We will not let this Government spin or stall its way out of justice.

Today, we are speaking with one voice and we are saying that we will not be spun, we will not be smeared, we will not be gaslit and we are not going away. All we ever wanted was to have the safe home we paid for, equal treatment and a fair system. We did not ask for compensation for the years of suffering. We have asked for justice. Now we are demanding it. I commend this motion to the House.

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I thank Deputy Ward for that excellent speech and for his campaigning. I also thank the campaigners he is connected to. It is a rare day in the Dáil that a motion is signed by the entire Opposition. That speaks to the injustice that is being inflicted on people here. It also speaks to the incredible campaigning that has been taking place for years. I have had the pleasure of meeting many of the campaigners. I spoke at one of the massive marches that happened in Dublin. I also got the benefit of their assistance in working with people to establish a similar 100% redress campaign for those affected by apartment and duplex defects.

These campaigners are always generous with their time and advice. They look to help others even though they have enough problems of their own in terms of what they face when go home, as illustrated by Deputy Ward. I remember when this issue emerged, there were attempts to divide and rule the country by saying that people in Dublin do not care about this issue. The Government does not really try that any more. Those who would see this injustice continue do not try it any more because it is clear that broad public support is with those who are affected by defective concrete. There is a sense of just how awful it is and of the injustice that has been done to them, as well as the responsibility of the State for that injustice and the necessity for a proper and genuine 100% redress scheme.

The motion, which is comprehensive, clearly outlines what the real issues are. Families are being forced to wait for years for redress and remediation in crumbling homes. They are suffering immense emotional, psychological and financial distress. As Deputy Ward outlined, they worry that their ceilings will come down and their homes will fall down around them. They are listening out for cracking sounds at night. How anyone can be forced to live like that by this State is outrageous. They are forced to move out during storms. The partial repair works that are done do not fix the problem. People in this situation and facing this horror day in, day out are having to go into debt to fund repairs themselves. They are being given the run-around over and over by representatives of the State who are meant to be helping them but instead deny, obfuscate and gaslight them.

An elephant in the room here is that it is not just private homes that are affected. Schools, health centres, community buildings and other critical infrastructure have also been built with defective blocks and the Government is doing even less about it. I hope that it does not take a tragedy, such as a total building collapse, to force it to act.

Engineers Ireland has confirmed that IS 465:2018 is not fit for purpose. It is scientifically unsound. It arbitrarily excludes many homes with concealed structural failures. Why is it still being used? Is it because it saves the State money, for now? This is incredibly short-sighted, just like the so-called "light-touch regulation" that caused this crisis in the first place. It will end up costing the State more in the long run when homes have to be remediated multiple times because remediation was not done properly the first time around. That is without taking into account the personal toll and the personal cost - the mental health burden and so on - of that process.

IS 465:2018 must be urgently replaced with a fit-for-purpose standard that follows the science. In its countermotion, the Government says that the defective concrete blocks scheme is not redress or compensation; it is just a grant. Why would it say that? What is the logic of that when there has been a campaign for redress, when everyone calls it "redress" and when redress is what people understand it to be? The Government is saying it to try to wriggle out of responsibility for the crisis. That is why. It is saying it to deny the lived reality of thousands of homeowners whose walls are crumbling, whose children are living in uncertainty and whose lives are disrupted by the lack of regulation. The State cannot absolve itself of responsibility just by changing the name of a scheme and calling it a grant. Homeowners know the truth and will not be gaslit that this is some kind of present or grant from the State. That kind of language is fooling nobody. The Government's countermotion is full of weasel words that are designed to sound good, but on closer inspection they turn out to full of holes, a lot like defective concrete.

The Government amendment says that homeowners can get "grants for 100 per cent of eligible expenditure". That sounds good, but it is a message that is designed to reassure those who are not affected that they do not need to worry because the people affected are getting what they asked for. It tells them that if they hear any moaning, it is coming from people who are just being difficult. It is not accurate and it is not true. It turns out that a lot of critical expenditure does not qualify as eligible expenditure. There is an arbitrary cap on the scheme. The Government is being economical with the truth when it claims that early movers are not being penalised. Many of them cannot get retrospective payments and have been forced to accept a flawed scheme or nothing.

That violates their constitutional right to equal treatment before the law and it must be addressed. The State's poor treatment of the victims here resembles what it tries to do to all other victims of State mistreatment and injustice. There are residential abuse survivors on hunger strike outside the Dáil because they have been denied access to healthcare. The root cause of all this distress is corporate greed and the failure of the Government to restrain it by properly regulating the construction sector. The same issues arose with the same dynamic in the case of the apartment and duplex defects from the 1990s onwards. Has anything fundamentally changed?

The latest policy from the Government is to reduce apartment standards so developers can make even more profit. I am sure the same arguments about viability were made in the past as a reason not to properly regulate the construction sector and construction materials. By the way, viability just means profit, and giving more profit to developers. There is a real injustice here that those responsible have not been prosecuted, or even at the very least forced to pay compensation for the harm they have caused and continue to cause. Instead, we have a concrete levy that spreads the cost widely to those with no responsibility, while at the same time the victims are still not being properly compensated. We have to ask why this corporate impunity happens again and again. We saw it before with the developers and the banks that crashed the economy but were allowed to get off scot-free while ordinary people suffered years of crippling austerity. The same is happening here with victims of defective blocks while the quarries and the block manufacturers are getting off scot-free.

There is also no accountability from the Government of the day. A 2017 expert panel report told us that local authorities were not given the funds by central government to enforce building control regulations. Building control authorities were unable to test construction materials in-house. Whose responsibility is that? That is on the State. That is on the current Government, which includes the same parties and some of the same individuals who are sitting in Cabinet today. The Taoiseach, Micheál Martin, presided over this crisis from the beginning and is still in there today trying to limit his Government's responsibility for it. We, in People Before Profit, fully support 100% redress for all those affected by this crisis. None of it is their fault. They must be fully compensated, and those responsible should be held to account, including the quarries, the block manufacturers, the builders who knowingly used defective materials and, I would say, the Galway tent Fianna Fáil Government that allowed it to happen. It allowed it to happen in order that some people could maximise their profits at the cost of immense ongoing distress for ordinary people.

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I move amendment No. 1:

To delete all words after "That Dáil Éireann notes that" and substitute the following:

"— the Remediation of Dwellings Damaged by the Use of Defective Concrete Blocks Act 2022 underpins an enhanced Grant Scheme which provides grant funding to people whose homes have been affected by Defective Concrete Blocks (DCB) and replaced a previous scheme;

— the DCB Scheme is neither a redress nor a compensation scheme, rather it is a grant scheme of last resort to enable affected homeowners remediate their homes and move on with their lives;

— over 3,000 homeowners are now at various stages of the Scheme and will be supported with grants for 100 per cent of eligible expenditure up to a maximum cap of €462,000 per household;

— applicants under the previous grant scheme have not been disadvantaged from being early movers, this was allowed for in the 2022 Act under transitional provisions and these early movers have benefited from the increased scheme cap and grant rates provided for;

— decisions regarding remediation options are made by independent engineers acting on behalf of the Housing Agency under the Scheme and can be appealed by homeowners who are dissatisfied with decisions made;

— appeals under the DCB scheme are covered by a statutory process under an Appeals Panel led by a Senior Counsel and with experts from the legal and engineering professions appointed by the Minister under a clear and transparent process managed on his behalf by the Public Appointments Service;

— the appeals system is an independent statutory function under the Remediation of Dwellings Damaged by the Use of Defective Concrete Blocks Act 2022 and it has now begun to issue determinations to appellants and is expected to accelerate its work in the coming weeks;

— the approach taken under the Pyrite Remediation Scheme (PRS) in Leinster was considered in the development of the DCB Grant Scheme, however, due to the different scale of both schemes, the homogenous nature of the damage caused in the PRS relative to DCB, and the flexibility sought by DCB homeowners, the DCB Grant scheme required a different approach more responsive to the needs of DCB homeowners;

— further to Government and the Department of Health's commitment to enhanced mental health supports for individuals and families affected by the defective concrete blocks issue, free counselling sessions are available to individuals and families in the five relevant counties;

— the Grant Scheme was designed in accordance with the prevailing scientific evidence available at the time and will be amended as and when required should the scientific evidence indicate that to be necessary;

— in November 2024, following receipt of preliminary results from scientific research into damaged dwellings in Co. Donegal, all homeowners who have been given a non-demolition option were offered a choice of continuing with the work on their dwelling under the option determined or the option of a full technical review of their application by the Housing Agency, this review will be informed by the current research once the full review of the national standard (I.S. 465) is complete, if homeowners choose to continue with their works, they continue to avail of the 40-year government guarantee;

— the National Standards Authority of Ireland (NSAI) launched a public consultation for the draft I.S. 465 "Assessment, testing and categorisation of damaged buildings incorporating concrete blocks containing certain deleterious materials" on 31st March, 2025, the consultation closed on 11th July, 2025 and yielded in excess of 640 submissions the NSAI 's Technical Committee is currently in the process of reviewing the submissions received; and

— the DCB Scheme is a residential homes scheme, the focus and priority has and will continue to be to assist individual homeowners who find themselves in distress; Non-residential properties can and are dealt with under other funding streams; and

further notes that:

— in line with the commitment to keep the scheme under review and improve it, the Government approved the priority drafting of legislation that will provide that the increases in the grant scheme cap and rates from October and November 2024, will be extended to a wider group of homeowners who incurred eligible costs under the grant scheme since 29th March, 2024;

— in addition, a number of small amendments to the legislation are also proposed to provide for to ensure the scheme can be continued to be applied in as efficient and equitable a manner as possible for all homeowners, this legislation is being progressed as expeditiously as possible and the Bill is included in the autumn 2025 Government Legislation Programme for Priority Publication;

— Local Authorities, working together with the Office for Emergency Planning and the National Directorate for Fire and Emergency Management have systems in place to assist all homeowners to remain safe and to secure alternative accommodation should it be required in the case of any severe weather occurrence;

— the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage has engaged proactively with the financial sector (banks and insurance companies) around the interaction of the DCB Scheme with their services, banks and insurance companies have clearly stated that homes certified, as being remediated under the DCB scheme will be treated in the same manner as all other homes;

— the Banking Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI) chairs a forum which brings together various stakeholders including the banking industry, engineers, construction, insurance, and the legal sector;

— the remediation option grant amount paid to homeowners, which is based on estimates provided by the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland and augmented by the Expert Group, includes an amount for Value-Added Tax charged to homeowners;

— any additional costs that apply to the building of houses arising from the concrete levy are minimal, bearable and reasonable in light of the need for the construction industry to make a contribution, however small, towards the cost of the Defective Concrete Block Redress Scheme - the levy has thus far raised in excess of €40 million which has helped fund the homeowner scheme;

— following extensive consultation with local authorities and Approved Housing Bodies, the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage intends to shortly bring forward a DCB social homes scheme as provided for under the legislation, to facilitate the remediation of social housing affected by DCB;

— the Programme for Government commits to the establishment of a Building Standards Regulatory Authority, it is intended that it will be an independent central competent authority, with the powers of a national Building Control Authority, and national Market Surveillance Authority for construction products, the Authority will act as a centre of best practice, driving, promoting and fostering compliance, competency and consistency in building control and market surveillance systems and throughout the construction industry, a Building Standards Agency will be established under the Local Government (Corporate Bodies) Act pending the establishment of a Building Standards Regulatory Authority; and

highlights that:

— over 3,000 homeowners are now at various stages of the DCB Grant Scheme and will be supported with grants for 100 per cent of eligible expenditure up to a maximum cap of €462,000 per household - this represents a 10 per cent increase in the maximum cap since the scheme launched in 2023;

— more than €193 million has been spent on the scheme to date with a commitment to more than double the level of funding for 2026 to €175 million;

— the DCB Scheme is actively helping homeowners to rebuild their homes, allowing them to move on with their lives;

— the Government remains committed to funding the full remediation of all homes affected by DCB and recognises that this may cost more than €2.2 billion (excluding inflation) and as such this scheme ranks as the most generous in the world;

— additional counties continue to be added to the Scheme clearly showing the Government's commitment to help all those affected by the legacy defects caused by defective block; and

— a formal review of the Scheme will be initiated by the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage in July 2026, in accordance with the provisions of the Remediation of Dwellings Damaged by the Use of Defective Concrete Blocks Act 2022, in the interim, a DCB Implementation Steering Group made up of officials from the Department, all relevant local authorities, the Housing Agency and the Homeowners Liaison Officer monitors and keeps the various elements of the scheme under review."

I thank the Independent and Parties Technical Group and others for the opportunity to speak on this important matter. Today's motion, which is comprehensive in its coverage, sets out a number of matters for discussion and I will do my best in the time I have to address as many as I can. The Government recognises the distress experienced by thousands of homeowners caused by the use of defective concrete blocks in their homes. My Government colleagues and I are committed to ensuring that all such homeowners are financially assisted to remediate their homes and to allow them to move on with their lives. I met with various stakeholders in Donegal earlier this year, including representatives of the Mica Action Group. I also met with a large number of Donegal councillors from all parties and none, alongside senior management of the council. Each group raised important matters, including the need to extend eligibility for the cap and rate increase to a larger group of homeowners. Through this series of meetings and site visits to homes affected by defective concrete blocks, I saw at first hand the real difficulties that the owners of such homes are facing through no fault of their own. It demonstrated to me the continued importance and contribution of the current scheme, in place since July 2023, in helping those affected to fix their homes and move on with their lives.

My Department remains in regular contact with those affected, not just in Donegal but throughout the country. We continue to work to listen to homeowners as we keep the scheme under review to identify where we can improve how it operates. I therefore say with confidence that the scheme is now really beginning to deliver for many homeowners in the affected counties. Over 3,000 homeowners are now at various stages of the defective concrete blocks grant scheme and will be supported with grants for eligible expenditure up to a maximum cap of €460,000 per household. This represents a 10% increase in the maximum cap since the scheme launched in 2023. As at the end of August 2025, 247 homes have been remediated, with a further 983 homeowners notifying their relevant designated local authority of the date of commencement of the works to remediate their homes. I believe that is good progress. That is why we are redoubling our efforts, in partnership with the local authority sector, the Housing Agency and the homeowners to accelerate funding and work under the scheme. More than €193 million has been provided to date.

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I apologise, can we get a copy of the speech?

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Government funding for this work continues to be provided, with a record €175 million allocated to fund the scheme in 2026. That is more than double the amount allocated to the scheme this year and reflects the strong take-up of the scheme as it begins to take hold, particularly in the north west of the country. In line with the commitment to keep the scheme under review and to improve it, the Government has approved the priority drafting of legislation to provide for the increases in the grant scheme cap and rates that were announced late last year, which have applied to all new applicants since that time, to be extended to a wider group of homeowners who have incurred eligible costs under the grant scheme since 29 March 2024. In addition, I plan to make a number of amendments to the legislation to the scheme to ensure it can continue to be applied in as efficient and equitable a manner as possible to all homeowners. This legislation is being progressed as expeditiously as possible and a Bill is included in the autumn 2025 Government legislation programme for priority publication. I expect it will be brought before the House shortly.

I am confident that the proposed amendments in the forthcoming Bill will address a number of matters of concern for homeowners, as are covered by the Deputies in this motion. I am acutely aware of the terrible effect and hardship that deleterious materials have caused and the toll this has had, and continues to have, on many individuals and their families. A major focus of this motion is rightly on protecting the mental health of homeowners and residents. This Government is committed to providing mental health supports for individuals and families affected by the defective concrete blocks issue. Free counselling sessions are available to individuals and families in the five relevant counties, and the Department of Health has worked with the HSE to ensure that mental health supports are available through MyMind. Homeowners can visit its website and register for the service. The Department of Health has also agreed to consider a face-to-face offering, instead of online telephone support, and will consider additional support and advice for children. Deputies will be aware that the current grant scheme was designated in accordance with the prevailing scientific evidence available at the time. The ongoing commitment from the Government is that the scheme will be amended in line with any new scientific evidence that is required. We will follow the science.

In this regard, in November 2024, following receipt of preliminary results from scientific research on damage to dwellings in County Donegal, all homeowners who have been given a non-demolition option were offered the choice of continuing with the work on their dwelling under the option determined, or the option of a full technical review of their application by the Housing Agency. This review will be informed by the current research, once the full review of the national standard is complete. I believe it is a pragmatic and equitable approach that offers flexibility, real choice and options to affected homeowners.

The National Standards Authority of Ireland, with the aid of comprehensive public consultation, which closed in July this year, is in the process of finalising its review of IS 465:2018, the national standard that underpins our defective concrete blocks scheme. It is considering close to 650 submissions that were received. My colleague, the Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment, recently confirmed he has been informed by his officials that an estimation of finalisation of the review of comments, and subsequent publication of the revised national standard, will be provided shortly. He has requested that the NSAI publish this update on its website when available.

The Remediation of Dwellings Damaged by the Use of Defective Concrete Blocks Act 2022 includes the provision of an appeals process for homeowners. Appeals under the defective concrete blocks scheme are covered by a statutory process under an appeals panel led by a senior counsel, and with experts from the legal and engineering professions appointed by the Minister under a clear and transparent process managed on his behalf by the Public Appointments Service. I am aware of a degree of concern about the speed of the appeals processes. My Department, which provides administrative support to the appeals panel, has passed on these concerns. However, it should be noted that the appeals system is an independent statutory function under the 2022 Act. Thankfully, I understand it has now begun to issue determinations to appellants and it is expected to accelerate its work in the coming weeks.

One thing we all agree on is how important this issue is and that everything that can be done to alleviate the distress of homeowners is being done. I thank the Deputy and look forward to hearing thoughtful and further helpful contributions here this morning.

I may have to step out quickly for an incorporeal Cabinet meeting and will be gone for about 60 seconds.

Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Solidarity)
Link to this: Individually | In context

This is an issue not just for Donegal but for the entire country. A precedent is being set by the way the Government is dealing with this issue. I want to send solidarity to all the homeowners and people affected by this issue in Donegal. There are often attempts in this House and outside it to divide and rule between people from so-called urban areas and rural areas. The reality is that I live in a pyrite-affected estate, but the pyrite remediation scheme has been extended to Limerick and other places. It is actually up and running. I just went to check the pyrite remediation website and it is taking new applications as we speak. I want to know why a different approach was taken.

The first thing the Minister said in his opening remarks was that the Government had financially assisted people. People should not be financially assisted; they should have their houses fixed completely, just like they did under the pyrite remediation scheme. My preference would be that a State company would fix everybody's house in a proper way and to standard, but there are specialist companies that did the work relating to pyrite and became experts in it. Companies should fix people's homes. People should not have to raise money, get a grant and do it themselves.

I wanted to bring some lessons from the battle we had over pyrite, when people's houses started to crack and the doors started to jam. People know that pyrite does significant damage to homes when it is exposed to the air and to moisture. Often this did not manifest for a number of years, but it began to manifest. We had to battle, by the way. Nobody should think that any remediation was granted by the Government. There were public meetings and petitions. I remember holding a public meeting when my daughter was a baby, and she started playing games about pyrite because she had attended so many meetings. It was not granted to people but had to be fought and battled for.

The damage this is causing to people's mental health has already been outlined. How a Government can stand over that is beyond me. A study was done by Ulster University professors Oisin Keenan, Karen Kirby et al., "An earthquake in slow motion". I will read some of the statistics from that. A total of 30.4% of people were suffering from severe depression, 26.2% of people from severe anxiety, 4.9% from PTSD and 15.5% from complex post-traumatic stress disorder. A total of 35.5% of the sample had suicidal ideation. Is the Minister listening to that? People cannot survive in crumbling, damp, unsafe homes. It affects their mental health. People feel it is like a warzone.

The motion from the Deputy quite rightly states, "the crisis extends far beyond private homes to schools, health centres, community buildings, critical infrastructure, and cemeteries". We have the same issue in Dublin West. Our local school has closed because it is getting fixed, because it has pyrite, and all of the students have had to be transferred. The community centre has shut down. The whole of Tyrrelstown, which is bereft of facilities at the best of times, had no facilities for ages because the community centre and school had to close. Clubs had to battle to get alternative grounds and venues. The impact of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael kowtowing to developers in this country with their light-touch regulation is being paid for by the people of Donegal and in many other places where defective building practices have been allowed to thrive.

The Galway tent was mentioned. I know we have State funding of political parties now but it has not stopped the Government from bowing in front of the building industry. It is unbelievable that a levy of 5% ends up being paid by the people seeking to fix their houses when they go and buy concrete products. The Minister needs to listen and there needs to be remedy for people in Donegal immediately.

Séamus Healy (Tipperary South, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I commend Deputy Charles Ward on bringing forward this detailed and comprehensive motion. The campaign for 100% redress is one I fully support. It is indicative of the support for that campaign that all the Opposition across the House have supported Charles's motion today. The motion highlights the fact that light-touch regulation, facilitated and supported by the State, is the root cause of the devastation that this defective concrete has caused for thousands of families, particularly in Donegal and indeed right across the west of the country.

The Government calls the 2022 Act enhanced, yet the reality for homeowners is very different. Thousands are still living with partial repairs, repeated works and ongoing risk. The have to respond to a crisis that the State itself created, yet it fails to acknowledge that responsibility. Worse, the standards it enshrines are outdated and built on assumptions that have been disproven by current scientific research. Homeowners therefore continue to bear the cost of the Government's failure, both financially and emotionally, while the State pretends that the problem has been solved.

The human impact of this devastation should be remembered. You can see a situation where an individual or couple decide to buy or build a home, take years saving for income to support that and take more time finding a mortgage to buy or build that home. There is the joy of the completion and moving into the home, and then there is devastation that the house is totally falling apart. Every morning, you get up to find a new crack, a new hole and more mould. You wake up in the middle of the night to noise. What section of the house is now at risk? Is the ceiling coming down? Is the roof coming off? This is mental and financial torture.

There are applications for redress or grants, partial approvals and appeals. Appeals have been left unresolved for two years, leaving families in unsafe homes, in breach of the State's duty to provide timely remedies. The appeals system is slow, opaque and structurally flawed. Families are under huge pressure financially and mentally. The mental pressure, distress and depression have been highlighted in a study called "An earthquake in slow motion: The mental health impact of Ireland's defective concrete crisis". It is a study produced by Oisin Keenan and Professor Karen Kirby at Ulster University.

It highlighted the significant psychological effects of the crisis, including trauma, stress and long-term mental health harm, confirming that redress must also address well-being as well as structural safety. I absolutely support the campaign for 100% redress for families affected by this. It is time for the Government to take note of the devastation this scheme has created and the absolute mess that the 2022 Act has created, and remedy the situation once and for all.

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context

There is a real crisis for people living in unsafe homes with defective concrete blocks. That crisis is far from over, despite what the Government may think. People are still living in fear every time there is a red weather warning, forced to watch as cracks spread and walls shift, as their home crumbles right around them. The Ulster University study summed it up best when it described it as an earthquake in slow motion. The study laid bare the real toll of this crisis, the mental health toll, the trauma, the stress and the long-term harm that is happening every day to my constituents and those living elsewhere. That is what families are enduring while the Government drags its feet.

The State's failure to regulate created the disaster and now the State is failing all over again. The scheme that is in place excludes so many people that it will never address the crisis. I will give an example of the sort of call I receive regularly to my office. Someone was in touch with my office just last week, a family in Donegal who live in a semi-detached home. Both their house and their neighbours' home have defective blocks. One house is recommended for demolition and the other recommended for remedial work. Both were built at the same time and with the same blocks. It is madness. This is the kind of mad stuff that is coming back. No builder will ever agree to take on that job and so the families in both houses are trapped. They cannot move forward and cannot rebuild. Many others simply do not have the money to even enter the process. They are left living in crumbling homes without any hope.

The impact of this crisis goes far beyond homes with defective concrete blocks. Schools, childcare facilities and community centres are all affected by this crisis - all left behind and abandoned by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael Governments. Deputies need to do the right thing today and vote for this motion tabled by Charles Ward, which we support.

The property market is left in chaos in my county and elsewhere because people cannot sell or buy homes, all because homes are unfairly deemed unmortgageable in some circumstances or uninsurable based on bad science and laptop studies. The Government continues to wash its hands of this issue.

Today, the CSO reported that Inishowen in Donegal, which is the epicentre of this crisis, has the most people living on low incomes. It is no coincidence that Donegal is one of the most deprived areas and has the most victims as a result of this scandal because this would never be allowed to go on year after year if it was in a more affluent place. Donegal is consistently left behind and consistently forgotten about. The people living with defective concrete blocks may not be rich or might not be politically connected, but by God they are bloody determined. We are going to stand with them and we are going to fight with them tooth and nail to make sure that they get the 100% redress they deserve. People need to be able to rebuild their homes and rebuild their lives. The Government should do the right thing. Every TD who has the right conscience should vote for this motion here today.

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I listened to the Minister for housing earlier and if ever there was an example of a Minister out of touch with the lived realities of homeowners and tenants impacted by defective concrete blocks and building materials, that was it. My God, he clearly has no understanding of the reality that people who represent these counties are articulating today. Given that it has been 15 long years since homeowners and tenants first brought this to Government's attention, it highlights a callous disregard and a lack of urgent action for people who have done nothing wrong.

In 2010, homeowners in Donegal, Mayo and other affected counties started to highlight the impact of defective building materials. In 2017, the Government commissioned and then published an expert group report. In 2018, the Cabinet agreed to have a remediation scheme but it did not open until 2021 and within a matter of months homeowners knew that that scheme was broken. In 2022, Darragh O'Brien rushed through legislation and refused to countenance 84 specific amendments drafted by homeowners to make the scheme fit for purpose. Here we are in 2025 and with fewer than 250 homeowners who have had their homes remediated, the Minister tells us that is good progress. We are seven years on and a tiny fraction of the number of people affected by this crisis have had their homes remediated, and none of those people got 100% redress. They were down by tens of thousands of euro.

At every stage when problems have been highlighted to the Government, the response has been delay, including delay in bringing forward the emergency legislation agreed a year ago to lift the cap. We still do not know from the Minister when it is coming. There has been delay in the long-awaited updating of the scientific underpinning of the scheme, IS 465:2018. There has been delay in getting Sligo and Fingal into the scheme. It has been delay, delay, delay. As other Deputies have said, we know what works; the Fingal pyrite scheme works. That is what should have been done in this instance. The worst thing is the Government is about to make exactly the same mistake when it comes to Celtic tiger-era defects. All homeowners affected by building defects caused by shoddy building practice and light-touch Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael regulation deserve equal treatment. Anything less than that is unacceptable. I am proud to stand here to support this cross-party motion today.

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I commend my colleague Deputy Charles Ward on putting together this motion. It speaks volumes that every single member of the Opposition accepted the invitation to co-sign the motion because it reflects the reality on the ground in our counties. My colleagues from other counties will speak soon. As someone from Donegal, I can say with absolute authority that this motion reflects the lived reality of our people. The Government countermotion shows it is absolutely tone-deaf to the reality in our communities. It is utterly offensive.

The first phrase we see early in the Government's countermotion is that this is not a redress or compensation scheme. Who does it think it is fooling? Micheál Martin, the Taoiseach, boasted that this would be the biggest redress scheme in the history of the State. That is his language - the biggest redress scheme and the history of the State, at more than €3 billion. The Government countermotion now boasts it is the biggest in the world apparently. However, that is not true on the ground. As we know from the previous Attorney General, Paul Gallagher, as we know from the leaked letters, the scheme was always intended to exclude as many people as possible. That was always the plan and that is what is happening.

Families who can pull together tens of thousands of euro are forced to do that and they are rebuilding their homes. However, tens of thousands of euro represents a good outcome. I recently met a family on site. Their beautiful home had to be demolished and they were traumatised. They told me that they do not get any money whatsoever for the foundations that have to be replaced. The demolition is not properly reflected in the price. This is not a huge house, but when they added things up, they are going to be short by just shy of €200,000. They had six years left on their mortgage and were paying about €900 a month. Because the banks are not helping, they now have a 21-year mortgage and their repayments have doubled to €1,800. They will be well past pension age when they are finished paying. That is 100% redress.

As colleagues have said, this is not about dividing urban from rural because all are victims of the failure of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael where there was self-regulation, light-touch regulation and no regulation of the construction industry and the manufacturing industry.

There was none whatsoever. It is an absolute disaster that we are left in this situation. This is a redress scheme. The Minister has got to be honest about that.

The next offence then is that the Government states that it provides "100 per cent of eligible expenditure". The language of that is so dishonest. The Government designed a scheme that left people to the mercy of the market where builders can name their own price. The sums are not adding up. We have nothing resembling 100% redress. What we, in the Opposition, are saying today, and I want to echo the call of colleagues, is that every single victim should be treated the same whether they live in Dublin, Leinster, the west of Ireland or if they are in the defective apartments. Every single person and every single family who was failed by what happened in this State, by governments that abandoned them and left no regulation, should be given the same 100%. It could not be more simple. We are uniting the people of this country in urban and rural communities; victims united in getting the same 100% redress.

I will tell the Minister something now. The Government has countered the motion from Deputy Ward today that we have cosigned, but we are not going to go away. The Government may think that because 20,000 people were out on the streets of Dublin, this is all over now; it is not over. There are thousands of council houses in my home county, and there are thousands of private homes. The example has been given of the semi-detached block. Imagine taking down half a semi-detached block. There is no solution for apartments. The Government has abandoned huge numbers of people. They are not going to go away, and we are going to keep fighting until we get the same justice for every single victim across this State.

Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I am very happy to co-sign this motion today with Deputy Ward and my colleagues, and I do so on behalf of the people of County Mayo and on behalf of the people for whom I have been fighting for the past 15 years. It is 15 years since we first noticed the houses start to crumble in Erris. Pat the Cope Gallagher is in the Chamber, and he will know many of those houses and families impacted. I am appalled by this countermotion the Government has tabled today and by the language that is in it. I will go through some of it. It states, "nor a compensation scheme". How the hell does the Minister think the Government would ever compensate the families who have been impacted by defective concrete blocks? How does he think it would compensate the children who were maybe three years old at the time when they first noticed that their homes were crumbling? Their childhoods have been robbed from them by this Government and Fianna Fáil and by the cost of the Galway tent because that is what it comes down to. I want people listening today to know that the cost to them - to the taxpayers and everyone who pays VAT in this country - of the Fianna Fáil light regulation and no regulation is €2.2 billion-plus. That is what they are paying back. That is what they are being asked to pay. I will go through some of the rest of it but lives have been destroyed and lives have been cut short and there are people who are no longer with us who were caught up in this through no fault of their own.

The countermotion states "100 per cent of eligible expenditure". Somebody looking at that who does not know exactly what carry-on is happening here and how the Government is gaslighting homeowners may think that is the problem solved. It states, "eligible expenditure". How can it be 100% when people are €50,000-plus short of what it is costing them to rebuild their homes never mind rebuild their lives? Then, it goes on to mention, "the PRS relative to DCB, and the flexibility sought by DCB homeowners", so really it is the homeowners' fault that they do not have a 100% wraparound scheme as was provided before. This is a disgraceful countermotion.

Mairéad Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Go raibh maith agat.

Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context

There are many more things I can say in relation to this, but the Minister needs to wake up. I appeal to all the TDs who are casting their vote against this motion to think long and hard about the suffering these homeowners and these children and families have had to endure through no fault of their own. It is absolutely disgraceful.

Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context

The motion today is supported by all the Opposition parties because they all recognise the huge difficulty for homeowners the length and breadth of the country in a number of counties, including Donegal, Sligo, Mayo, Clare and a whole lot of others. Many of the people who produced the concrete products shared them with other quarries and other providers. In many places, we will find that they have seeped into other counties that we are not aware of yet. That is one of the issues that needs to be recognised.

This programme states that we can have applications from certain counties which have been approved for applications, of which Sligo is one. Only five people so far have got their applications in. I met a woman on the street in Sligo town a couple of weeks ago and she told me that she was filling in this application because her home was crumbling. She said it is as if we are pretending that this is happening to us and the Government is telling us to prove we are wrong. She asked, "Would I pretend I have cancer? I would not." People are not pretending that their houses are crumbling around them. The way in which they have to fill out these forms and the huge number of criteria they have to go through only to prove they have a problem for which they need to get proper and full redress is absolutely outrageous. It is an example and a reflection of where this Government policy is. The Government policy is not about providing for people; it is about blocking people from getting any help. That is what it is really about and that is the issue most people have with this particular scheme the Government has put in place. The countermotion it has tabled today is reinforcing that high wall it has built in front of people that they cannot get over.

There are also a whole lot of other people who are in council houses or local authority houses. They see it around them, but the council will not even go and look at these houses. It will not even do assessments of them. We also have issues with commercial and community buildings, which have the same problems but again they are not included in the scheme.

The fact the Government is burying its head in the sand and trying to avoid this issue has to be called out. The Opposition is calling it out clearly, and the response from Government is to block it even more. It is to turn away and say that "No, we will not listen; we will not look at the reality that people have to live through". That is the greatest scandal this Government has ever come across.

People mentioned earlier that we have had light touch regulation in the past. Most of this was done through the early to late 2000s, but it went on even after that for quite some time. There are people who had houses built after the bust in the economy and they are now noticing the same problems. What we need is a Government that will recognise that what it has done to date has been an utter failure. It needs to recognise that what we are putting forward is a solution that it can work with. Government needs to work with this because it is for the defence of ordinary people the length and breadth of the country who are losing their homes.

Donna McGettigan (Clare, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I welcome this motion and commend Deputy Ward on bringing it forward. There are families trapped in homes that are unsafe and that are literally crumbling around them. They put their faith in the defective block scheme. They filled out every form and jumped through every hoop and now some are being punished for being too early, for daring to hope that the Government would stand by them in their hour of need.

When this scheme first opened, it was sold as a lifeline, but what has it become? It is a bureaucratic nightmare that is causing inequality and that leaves families stranded on outdated costings that are years out of date. This is nothing short of a national scandal. People have every right to feel abandoned by this Government.

If we take the grant scheme, there are approximately 25 families in County Clare who are trapped in the original scheme, and these increases mean nothing because they are locked out and forgotten. Take Martina Cleary, a woman who only did one thing wrong, which was to believe the promise of the Government. Martina has to pay a mortgage of €14,600 for a demolished home; a pile of rubble in which she has built memories. She will now have to borrow tens of thousands of euro to finish her home. Why? The grant given to her does not cover the costs. All this on a single income, and she is just 12 years out from retirement. Is that fairness? This is not just about bricks and mortar. It is about dignity, justice and the right to a safe home. These are real people. Their walls are cracking, their ceilings are falling and their lives are unravelling. Let us not forget those in social housing left paying rent for homes that are falling apart, homes the State itself knows are defective.

We also want to see an effective scheme for those living in social housing and private rental accommodation. This Government cannot continue to turn its back on them. The message from Clare and other areas is loud and clear: we need fairness. We need a Government that will stop making excuses and start making things right. While Ministers talk about figures and frameworks, the people I represent are living in fear with debt and with the heartbreak of watching their homes crumble to dust. The stress and emotional toll on those homeowners cannot be overstated. These families need some hope. They need to see light at the end of the tunnel and it is the Government's responsibility to give it to them. It is essential that they are listened to, that their needs are understood and that they are addressed.

We have raised this repeatedly with successive Governments for years and still homeowners are waiting for a raise in the square metre costing cap, updated grant rates and an extension to the timeframe for complete remediation works and legislation to be passed. We in Sinn Féin are committed to the 100% redress scheme for affected homeowners. It is time to act and it is time to deliver. It is time to stand with the families, not against them.

Conor Sheehan (Limerick City, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I would like to thank Deputy Ward for all his work on this motion. It is very technical and I was proud to cosign it on behalf of Labour.

I heard the response from the Minister for Housing, Deputy Browne, earlier and to be honest, I was shocked - even by my standards - at how bland and unresponsive his response was to the substantive issues raised in the motion. The Government has designed a scheme that is so rigid it cannot respond in real time. This is not a grants scheme; this is redress. There is no acknowledgement in anything anyone in government has said about the harm this scheme is doing to people, the stress it is causing and the real mental anguish.

There is a misconception out there that this is just an issue, say, on the Inishowen Peninsula; it is not. This is an issue in Limerick. I had Olivia Sheil, cochair of the Limerick Defective Blocks Action Group, in my constituency office on Monday nearly in tears as she described how the house she bought little over a decade ago is falling down around her. She first discovered this when she went to get the SEAI grant to pump the walls, which exposed all the cracks. Her mortgage is going to be doubled and she is a working, lone parent. There will be an extra €125,000 or whatever added onto her mortgage because the scheme does not fully cover the breadth of work that needs to be done to her home. Her home is semi-detached so she has to put a wall inside a wall, essentially, inside the house because they will not test the house next door.

We have discussed this many times in this Chamber, and we are five years on from the opening of the scheme and two years on from the enhanced scheme. The scheme is deeply flawed and as per usual with schemes in this State - and this is always the way we treat victims of abuse, with institutional Ireland doing this for generations - the burden of proof is always put on the victim and the victim has to prove that he or she is not a liar. That is the way this scheme operates. We are at the tip of the iceberg in the city of Limerick, which I represent, on this. There is a Roadstone quarry in Bunratty where these defective concrete blocks Olivia Sheil has in her house came from in the early 1990s.

The fact of the matter is we do not know yet how seriously we are genuinely affected by this. The lack of regulation on behalf of Fianna Fáil Governments at the time in particular, does not just relate to this. We see it in apartments and in various aspects of bad housing policy. I am afraid this new Government, given what the Minister is doing with apartment standards and VAT cuts, has not learned a single lesson. The proof is in the pudding with this scheme. Just over 220 dwellings were completed nationwide up to mid-2025. A year ago, the Government promised to extend the increase in the cap of everyone availing of the scheme. Where is the legislation? This is just another delay and more mental anguish and mental torture that these poor families and individuals are being put through by the State. The Government must fast track the promised legislation for retrospective payment. Families who received grant approval under the old Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland costings are faced with tenders from contractors that obviously reflect current market conditions and are way above what they were. People cannot find tens of thousands of euro, if not hundreds of thousands of euro to plug the enormous gaps in what they are required to pay. This is not their fault. These homeowners must have their grant award increased in line with current costs.

The Minister, in particular, needs to come in and accept his predecessor's scheme does not work. We need a new end-to-end scheme and we need 100% redress. We have the model with the pyrite scheme in Fingal. The pyrite remediation scheme is structured on an end-to-end basis. It is not a grant scheme and it does not ask homeowners to be project managers. We have situations there now with this scheme where people are sitting behind desks inside in the Housing Agency, downgrading people at the stroke of a mouse or a pen without even going out to see the house. That is disgraceful. When we consider the difference with the pyrite scheme, is it any wonder people all along the west coast are looking on with envy and anger?

The motion points out the terrible psychological effects of the trauma and stress these families have gone through which would not have been as bad if the State had responded appropriately without making them, as it always does and always has, prove they are not lying. Why would you lie about something like this? Their homes are crumbling around them. I welcome the fact this motion recognises the need for mental health supports. These families have been let down by the State, left to languish in houses that were once treasured family homes. I recall Deputy Charles Ward, in his maiden speech, which has stuck with me ever since, saying their houses were like Weetabix. We need urgency from the Government on this. We cannot continue to fail these people. I am really disappointed by the countermotion. It is absolutely unacceptable and I urge the Government to rethink it.

Robert O'Donoghue (Dublin Fingal West, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I speak today on behalf of the constituents of Dublin Fingal West, dealing with the stress caused by their houses literally crumbling around them. Families did everything right. They saved, they waited for their homes to be built, took pride in their home and now they live in fear, with cracks going up the walls, through the floors and the ceilings yet the response from the Department is painfully slow.

Its slowness to admit people to the scheme is beyond belief. Why the dragging out of the process, the endless waiting and stress levels going through the roof? The Government does not want to pay out to help them. That is what it looks like from the outside and what it feels like to those affected. The owners cannot sell their houses, they cannot afford to fix them yet they are still forced to pay property tax on homes that may be worth nothing. Is that fair? Let us call it what it is: these people are not responsible for the debacle that has been laid at their doorstep. They did not choose defective blocks, they did not cause this crisis but they are the ones paying the price financially, emotionally and mentally.

The Remediation of Dwellings Damaged by the Use of Defective Concrete Blocks Act 2022 came into effect in June 2023. The enhanced grant scheme is open to five counties - Clare, Donegal, Limerick, Mayo and Sligo - but there are other areas where there is clear evidence of this and people are still waiting. I understand Fingal County Council, in line with section 57 of the Act, submitted a request to the Housing Agency back on 21 September 2023 for inclusion in the scheme. The agency then appointed a chartered engineer from its own panel to carry out investigations and consultations, including concrete block sampling and testing, which began in December 2023. Those tests confirmed what homeowners had been saying all along, which was that the properties in the affected areas are showing clear signs of damage caused by defective concrete blocks.

The Housing Agency completed its investigations and submitted its report to the Department. The Minister has since received the report and the recommendations will be considered in the near future. People have been waiting long enough. The review may be complete but families are still living in unsafe homes without certainty and without support. What they need is not another report sitting on a desk, they need action and they need it urgently. I have been addressing this through parliamentary questions since January of this year, and as far back as 2023 when I was a councillor, for three estates in particular in Rush, Lusk and Skerries. These families need answers now, they need a decision to be made and they need hope and solutions. I ask the Minister to take a fresh look at how this scheme is being run, cut the red tape, stop hiding behind procedures and show compassion. I ask him to stop putting the burden back on these homeowners who are already stressed by their homes falling apart. Every day he delays, another family wakes up in a home they cannot trust will not fall apart around them. It is simply not good enough for the constituents of Dublin Fingal West.

Rory Hearne (Dublin North-West, Social Democrats)
Link to this: Individually | In context

The Social Democrats are happy to strongly support this motion. I thank Deputy Ward and the Independent Technical Group for bringing it forward. It is absolutely one of the most important motions that will be brought forward in this Dáil term because the issue that faces people across the country who are affected by defective blocks is twofold. It is State and market failure. It is market failure because developers and builders who built these homes knew what they were doing. Where is the accountability? The State was responsible for ensuring the building of homes was to a decent quality and safe standard. The State failed. As has been pointed out very clearly in this motion, what the Government has set out and given so far is not redress; it is grants, and again, as has been pointed out, in many situations those grants are not even coming near to covering the costs of the damage people are living with. The people living in these homes need and deserve redress. That is why the Social Democrats are completely backing this motion and will continue to support it. Deputy Ward and others will continue to push for these homeowners to get what they need and deserve throughout this Dáil term.

Is ceart daonna é tithíocht. Housing is a human right but the Government does not believe that. If it did, it would not allow this situation where people are living in unsafe homes that are literally crumbling around them. Not only are they physically unsafe, they are damaging the health, particularly the mental health, of the people living in them. I wrote in my own book about a concept called chronic housing stress, which is chronic, psychosocial strain that results from living in situations of prolonged periods of housing stress. One of the causes is when housing is substandard whether because of mould, damp, or a structural problem. I quoted in my book survey research that showed that approximately 70% of those directly affected by mica and pyrite were suffering from anxiety, 65% had difficulty sleeping, 46% were affected by low mood and 25% were affected by depression. They called it a constant source of dread every day, a dark place where they could not escape from the fear of what was to come. They do not feel secure in their homes. They feel trapped. This is absolutely unacceptable.

Regarding the notion of this grant, this is not a project or initiative that people are undertaking; these are vital repairs to homes that directly result from regulatory failure. One of the most frustrating and annoying aspects of this is that it also results from Government failure and the hands-off approach that allowed cowboy builders and developers to wreak havoc on these communities. Where is the accountability? Where is the forcing of those developers, some of whom are still in business today and will benefit from the VAT cut the Government introduced in the budget? Builders and developers get VAT cuts, and what do the people whose homes are crumbling get? They get grants that do not even cover the cost of remediating their homes. These people are not stupid. They see it and feel it. They see a Government that gives VAT cuts to developers and builders but will not fund the homes collapsing around them.

We talk about inequality and the Taoiseach harps on about how he is all for a progressive society and Fianna Fáil was always the party that had a social conscience. There is no social conscience in Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael when thousands of people’s homes are crumbling around them and they have no sense of where the end point is. Where is the point when they will be able to live in a home where their children will be able to wake up every morning without the fear that the house is going to crumble around them?

Something I have written extensively about and highlighted is the impact of the housing crisis on children. This is one aspect of our 20-year housing crisis. The children do not understand and cannot conceptualise the same way as an adult who understands, “Okay, the house is physically unsound. We are doing what we can. It might not fall down tomorrow; it might fall down in a few weeks.” Children cannot understand that. They wake up every morning wondering whether the house is going to fall down around them. Let us think of the impact on those children, the stress they live with, and how that impacts on how their brain develops. We know stress in children has lifelong impacts. The Government does not consider the children of those living in homes affected by pyrite, in homelessness, or in hidden homelessness.

We need a change in our approach to housing. We need to treat it as a human right, and supporting 100% Redress is the start of that.

Sinéad Gibney (Dublin Rathdown, Social Democrats)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I wish to make three main points in my contribution: building defects are a legacy of lack of oversight from this Government; it is clear the parameters around redress are wrong and we are leaving people behind so let us fix it; and, finally, the burden for fixing this problem has been placed until now, on people who did not do anything wrong.

Building defects are a legacy of a lack of oversight, and this legacy has crept into every aspect of people's lives. It is the wall that collapses, the dangerous fire escape they have to pray they never need, and the mould that chokes them in their own home. It comes in the demand letter from a management company threatening debt collectors if an owner does not pay remediation fees upfront, while no remediation scheme is yet in full operation for defective apartments, which my own constituents have raised with me. It manifests in people forced to live in unsafe conditions and without adequate, well-resourced schemes to fix this problem and that treat these victims with empathy and respect, these people cannot live their lives.

It is clear that the parameters around redress are wrong and we are leaving people behind. Let us fix it. I thank Deputy Charles Ward for today's motion, which addresses this, but also for his tireless efforts in bringing this issue to the Dáil floor, and into the mainstream discourse of our country. It must feel for him at times like he is shouting into the void. I assure the Deputy on behalf of the Social Democrats, we are proud to cosign this motion, and give it our full support. This motion sets out how no family should be denied redress because they do not meet a superficial damage threshold, when an engineer can attest that their home is structurally unsound, how nobody should wait for years in an unsafe home because of administrative delays, and how nobody should live in limbo, not knowing if and when they will get support, be it financial, mental or material.

My final point is that the burden for fixing this problem has been placed on people who did not do anything wrong. I wish to quote some of the people affected by this crisis. Dr. Áine Sperrin is a friend of mine, a former colleague, a Donegal woman and a human rights expert. She states:

“The bureaucratic and logistical burden on people trying to navigate this scheme, the material load of sourcing alternative accommodation while trying to minimally disrupt children's lives is a huge stressor on parents, who are also balancing work commitments to pay mortgages for soon-to-be piles of rubble. Families are spending huge amounts of money attempting to heat and light homes with literal holes in the walls and water leaking around electrical appliances."

She goes on to articulate in eloquent human rights language how this is impacting on a range of rights across health, education, privacy and adequate standard of living, the hidden impact on the rights of disabled people, refugees and migrants, and on social justice and social cohesion itself in the counties affected.

Marti McElhinney is a spokesperson for DCB Downgraded, a group that has mobilised to deal with the specific aspect of the issue addressed in this motion. She said:

These downgrades were made without any site visits, based solely on desktop reviews of reports, some already four years old, while in the interim our homes continued to deteriorate due to Internal Sulfate Attack (ISA) caused by Pyrrhotite in the blocks. All interim deterioration was never noted.

All downgraded homeowners in our group have submitted appeals since February 2024. Twenty months later, not one has been adjudicated. This untenable and devastating limbo leaves our families imprisoned by the walls of our deteriorating homes.

There must be 100% redress now.

Michael Collins (Cork South-West, Independent Ireland Party)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I am in full support of this vital motion to reform the defective concrete redress scheme. Families across Ireland are living in homes that are crumbling around them - unsafe, uninsurable and unfit for human habitation. The current scheme is failing them. The appeals are delayed for years. Partial repairs are unsafe, and the financial burden is crushing. These families did nothing wrong, yet they are being taxed twice and forced to manage complex rebuilds on their own. I agree that we need to stop partial remediation, restore full redress and establish an independent authority to oversee the process. Mental health supports, emergency housing and fair access to insurance and mortgages must be guaranteed. When people buy their first house or new home, the excitement of getting the keys and walking through the doors is second to none. The vision they have for their new home such as what colour the walls will be painted, what kind of furniture they plan to buy, what kind of a kitchen they want to put in and all the usual joy that comes with a new home for them is gone. What has happened to these people is a nightmare. Their dreams are crumbling around them just like their homes. Instead of sitting around the kitchen table talking about their future plans, they are sitting around the table in limbo. They cannot plan for the future. They cannot even think about the future because they are stuck. Most people have very little knowledge of building materials, court cases or dealing with banks on a daily basis but these people now think of little else other than the fact their homes are falling down and they cannot put their homes on the market and sell. Let us face it: who in their right mind would buy one of these homes?

It is not just the blocks. I have a case right now where the structure of the house is completely unstable, not because of the materials, but because of the builder and he is walking away scot-free. We have all heard of cowboy builders and, unfortunately, there are plenty of them still out there. People buy homes in good faith with engineer reports and mortgages based on those reports yet they have no hope of getting justice when things go wrong. This is unacceptable and is why strong, new laws must be passed that protect homeowners and hold those responsible to account. If there is anything we can do in the House to make this easier for anyone affected by these defective blocks and defective building practices, we should. The nightmare needs to end.

Ken O'Flynn (Cork North-Central, Independent Ireland Party)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I congratulate and thank Deputy Charles Ward for bringing this to the House. I have gotten to know him since we were both elected on the same day. He is an honourable, decent gentleman. The majority of time he has spoken in this House has been about this defective blocks issue, and he has been a lone voice at times on this matter.

Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I am sorry, we have been fighting it for 15 years.

Ken O'Flynn (Cork North-Central, Independent Ireland Party)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Sorry, I thought I was speaking. Deputy Ward has been a great inspiration to me and my constituency and has really brought this to the forefront. People in Cork are stopping me and talking to me about what the Deputy has brought up and about the injustice. The one thing this Government is very good at is drawing divisions in society, setting people against one another, whether it is the private sector against the public sector or this against that. We can see it today in this motion. For years we have seen thousands of families left behind in homes that are cracking. I met people with Deputy Ward, and they spoke about being worried when they go to bed at night about whether the roof is going to be there or what is going to collapse and whether their children are safe inside their house with the black mould on the walls. They are continuously cleaning and working together. They are stressed. Their children are stressed. Elderly people are stressed. They are worried day in day out. let us imagine the thought of going to bed wondering what will collapse, what will break, whether the next storm is going to be the one that brings down the house. That is an impossible situation for people. However, we have seen delay after delay from 2018 to 2025 with this scheme. There are continuous delays and dragging of heels. If Deputy Pat the Cope Gallagher was a Minister in the previous Government, the situation would be very different. In fairness to him, he is a decent and honourable man who always provided well for his constituency and did a lot of work for his constituency. He is a character who really did deliver for Donegal, and I question whether if he was in the Cabinet the last time, the results would have been very different? The simple truth is the entire scheme that has been presented to us is not generous, is not scientific, is not independent and it is certainly is not fair.

Paul Lawless (Mayo, Aontú)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I commend the motion before the House and commend Deputy Charles Ward on tabling it. The work of Mary T. Sweeney in Donegal with him must also be commended. I am very proud to speak on behalf of the people and families of Mayo, who have been so desperately affected by the defective blocks scheme. It is a travesty that it has been allowed to drag on for so long. It is really shocking we are still in this situation; despite the fact this was no fault of the families. This was the fault of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael because of light-touch regulation or, indeed, no regulation at all and no system to monitor what was happening in the manufacturing industry in this country. Despite that, the Government has yet to step up to the plate. It is really important the people of Mayo, Donegal, Sligo and Clare get the same treatment that they deserve, namely, 100% redress. We must stop treating the families affected by pyrite as if they are applying for a Government grant. That is what is happening and that is shameful. It is time the Government stepped up to the plate and addressed the situation because there are families across Mayo living in endangered homes. They do not know whether the next storm will bring down their home. Meanwhile, the Government is, in many ways, leading them up the garden path on this. Pre-election promises have failed to materialise. How any politician, in government or opposition, could vote against this motion to treat people with the respect they deserve is hard to believe. Why are the victims in Mayo, Donegal and Sligo treated so radically differently from the victims in Dublin? What is the difference between pyrite and pyrrhotite? The truth is the difference is a couple of atoms of sulphur yet the people of Dublin are treated so differently. How is it that the people of Dublin were given a pyrite resolution board and the people of Mayo have to do their own heavy lifting?

Paul Gogarty (Dublin Mid West, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I express my solidarity and thanks to Deputy Ward for bringing the motion before the House. He has done exactly what he said he would do. He is the 100% Redress Party representative, and he is using every opportunity he can to get 100% redress.

It is great to see other Members, from the west and north west, in particular, showing support and solidarity today. As someone who is Dublin-based, I have met people who had families broken up because of the situation, who are living in uncertainty and who have been financially ruined. It is not to the extent the other Deputies have all experienced but I understand and we need fairness.

Going back to when it happened, there were multiple parties involved. Obviously, there were the concrete blocks suppliers, the builders and developers but, equally, as Deputy Lawless said, there was the Government. It was responsible for the light touch regulation or no regulation and poor oversight, especially in the Celtic tiger and back in the days when there was the Fianna Fáil tent. Developers gave large donations to Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, in particular. There was a really cosy relationship. The buck stops with the people who were expecting good times from Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael because they have put families in turmoil and they need to pay their fair share. Equally, if that is not possible for different reasons - companies might have gone to the wall, for example - the Government and the taxpayer have to take responsibility. It is the right thing to do.

As Deputy Ward's motion says, partial repairs are not suitable. There needs to be full redress. The Government needs to listen to the experts and the engineers who have done the reports and not leave people unsafe in their homes. A fair scheme that is applied retrospectively is needed. An independent statutory authority is also required. As well as supporting the families, the community buildings that have been affected need to be looked at.

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I welcome the chance to speak on this motion today because this has been the single biggest issue affecting Donegal over my time in politics. It has been traumatic for every single family who has been affected by defective concrete blocks. It has been my objective throughout my time in politics and in Cabinet in the previous Dáil to work to ensure we get a scheme that would help people rebuild their homes and rebuild their lives. We have seen significant progress in the past two years since the new scheme was introduced. In Donegal, as of today, there are 580 homes under construction in the county and 137 are now completed. No matter what road you go down in Donegal now, you will see a house under reconstruction.

Part of the frustration that has added to the challenges families have faced with this at all times have been the delays with moving it on. There were delays with the legislation in the first place, which took time and more time than it should have taken. It is important that the outstanding issues are all dealt with and resolved. Some of those are taking too much time as well. We need to see the 10% increase applied. I fought hard at Cabinet more than a year ago to make sure the decision to do it was made. That needs to be implemented in legislation right away. In terms of the capacity to build on a different footprint from where the original house was in certain circumstances, that needs to be implemented in that legislation too.

The social housing scheme has also been delayed for too long. That needs to get up and running. We need resolutions for Elm Park and the houses that are currently built on a flood plain. We need to see the review of the standards by the National Standards Authority completed. It is also taking too long and it is really important we have that and that it concludes and leads to certainty around the mortgageability of all properties.

On the downgraded homes, that is related to the National Standards Authority but also the appeals issue. That has also been too slow in getting up and running. On the payment timelines coming from Donegal County Council, where the majority of affected homes in the country are under construction, it is working to make sure those issues are resolved. I will continue to work in every way possible to resolve the outstanding issues, as I have to get it to where it is today.

Eamon Scanlon (Sligo-Leitrim, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this debate. I will take this opportunity to appeal to the Minister of State to extend the enhanced defective concrete blocks scheme to County Leitrim. In Leitrim, there are numerous homeowners grappling with the devastating impact of mica. Families are facing immense financial burdens and emotional stress as they watch their homes crumble before their eyes. The crisis extends far beyond structural issues. It strikes at the very heart of family well-being and stability, impacting on not just their living conditions but their overall quality of life.

Leitrim councillors have called for action on this matter. The message is clear: all that should be required is proof that the house is severely damaged by mica. We need to ensure those in need receive the support and assistance they deserve. The existing scheme speaks for itself, with more than €193 million invested to date and a commitment to more than double the funding to €175 million in 2026. The defective concrete block scheme enables homeowners to rebuild their lives, offering them a chance to restore not only their homes but their sense of security and stability.

As we see additional counties being included in the scheme, it is evident the Government is committed to addressing the legacy of defects caused by these faulty blocks. Last year, Sligo was added to the scheme, which is very welcome for those people who are affected.

With the formal review of the scheme forthcoming, I urge the Minister to consider including Leitrim. It is imperative that affected homeowners in Leitrim have the opportunity to qualify for the grants they deserve. Anywhere where a family or property is affected by mica should qualify as you cannot give to one and not give to the other. It is crucial that anybody affected should be awarded the funds to replace or improve their properties.

Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I am glad of the opportunity to contribute to this debate as well, as I have many times in the past. I cannot understand how this is going on for so long but I heard the Minister of State say the different things that hold it up. I hope it is full belt ahead to ensure the people of Donegal, Mayo, Clare and any other affected area get the redress scheme and their homes back in order, as they rightfully should have. It is great to see everyone uniting from Donegal, Mayo and Clare. A lot of time has been given to these debates.

I cannot visualise what went wrong in the first place. We have concrete blocks in Kerry. Mike Jack Cronin has been making them for years and the Casey brothers have been delivering from Rathmore for years. There was not a word about anything wrong with concrete blocks. I cannot understand what went wrong. Was it the cement? Was it the stone? What went wrong in the making of them and how is it so widespread? A load of concrete can go wrong somewhere if something causes it but tonnes and tonnes of concrete went into these blocks and they all finished up in a mess. It took a bit of time before they fell apart. Was it done deliberately or what happened? We need to be told that. What was the cause of the bloody thing in the first place?

People have lost their homes and have been out of their homes for many years. We do not hear of anyone being chastised or brought before a court or anything as a result of what happened.

Keira Keogh (Mayo, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Today, I have constituents who feel unheard, unseen and left in limbo. I want to acknowledge that progress has been made. The Government has taken steps in recognising the scale of the housing defects crisis by the establishment of the enhanced defective concrete blocks scheme and by announcements of increased caps offering choices between non-demolition, remediation or a full technical review.

These are not small victories. They are hard-won milestones but today I speak on behalf of my constituents in Pairc na Coille in Westport, across Belmullet and all across Mayo. Today, I speak for the homeowners who are anxiously awaiting legislation on retrospective payments. These constituents are under huge pressure to sign off on their houses and to leave the scheme. I speak for my constituent who had to dig down 4.8 m, just to find solid foundations. They are now facing the uncertainty as to whether these excess costs such as stilts, removal of soil and rubble and increased engineers fees will be covered. I speak for my constituent with terminal cancer who lies awake at night, wondering if her children will be entitled to the scheme if the unimaginable comes to pass.

I speak for families living in unsafe houses who want to knock and rebuild but in this housing crisis, they have nowhere to go. They are trapped between danger and displacement. I speak for those who bought their homes in good faith, only to discover pyrite years later. They have had to jump through hoop after hoop to prove they did not know. These victims must defend their innocence. I speak for those who have developed ticks, tremors and traumas from the stress of living in defective homes. For them, sparse free counselling is not enough. Their mental health deserves more than a token gesture. It deserves real, sustained support.

While we make policies in offices, its impact is felt in kitchens, bedrooms and back gardens all across the country. We must deliver the legislation that is needed urgently. We must carry out the full review urgently. We must expand the scheme urgently because behind every cracked wall is a broken heart and behind every delayed payment is a family holding on by a thread.

Pat Gallagher (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

At the outset, I want to thank Deputy Ward for bringing forward this Private Members' motion to give us the opportunity for a comprehensive debate, albeit one that is too short.

On Friday evening last, there had been no transfer of funds to Donegal. I acknowledge that thanks to the intervention of the Minister for housing, Deputy Browne, and the Minister for public expenditure, Deputy Chambers, that transfer was made on Friday evening and payments went out on Saturday to the many people who were awaiting them. I have had numerous emails from people in Donegal suggesting that I should vote in favour of this motion. The Deputies on the other side of the House know the position I am in as a member of a party in government but they can take it for definite that I will be vocal on this side of the House and will knock continuously on the Minister's door until we make progress. I also want to assure the many who are on the waiting list for inner and outer leaves that I believe it is ludicrous that somebody behind a desk is deciding on that. They should be out on the ground. We must ensure that apartments, local authorities, crèches and schools are covered. A visit to Elm Park is absolutely essential. Mental health is a major issue. Regarding IS 465:2018, the fact that the standards cannot be used for conveyancing will be discussed with the Minister later in the week. People cannot buy or sell mortgages. Desktop exercises are not acceptable. Side by side, where people have special needs, they are waiting on legislation and it is not good enough. I am calling on the Minister to give us a timeframe and to outline how we are going to move forward. This has been going on for far too long. It was going on when I was in the Chair and it has been raised continuously since then. It is not good enough and I assure the people of Donegal and elsewhere that I will be working closely with others to ensure we make progress.

John Cummins (Waterford, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I thank colleagues for their important contributions here today. I echo many of the comments made by the Minister, Deputy Browne, when he emphasised this Government's commitment and determination to tackle the challenges faced by homeowners living with the scourge of defective concrete blocks. I cannot imagine what it must be like for people to see the home they have built, and all the memories that go with that, continuing to weaken over time. The trauma which many Deputies have described in their statements is real and as a Government Minister, I acknowledge that. While I agree that there is still much to be done, I do not think that some of the views put forward today by the Opposition are a fair reflection of the efforts and progress being made by a large number of key stakeholders across the system.

The new enhanced DCB scheme has been open for applications now for just over two years. The Government put it in place in order to assist homeowners to remediate damage caused by the use of defective concrete blocks. The primary focus of the current enhanced scheme remains the remediation of family homes with priority being assigned to those most severely impacted by block defects. Many colleagues here will know that significant improvements were brought forward in the current incarnation of the scheme, not least of which was the significant additional levels of funding for all eligible expenditure.

The Government is committed to fully funding all eligible expenditure under the scheme. This is estimated to cost the State in excess of €2.2 billion, excluding inflation, and is expected to help in excess of 7,500 households. As we speak now, almost 3,000 homeowners are at various stages of the DCB grant scheme process. The Minister provided a detailed breakdown of that in his opening statement. Furthermore, following extensive consultation with local authorities and approved housing bodies, the Minister will shortly bring forward a DCB social homes scheme, as provided for under the legislation, to facilitate the remediation of social housing affected by defective concrete blocks. A number of Deputies raised this particular matter in their contributions and I assure them that this will start the process of remediation for more than 1,000 social homes across the country, which I know will be welcomed by all Members of this House.

While remaining focused on ensuring that homes in the current counties in the scheme are fixed, the Government has also been willing to adapt the response when other issues arose. The Act when originally implemented covered only the counties of Donegal and Mayo. Since then, the Government has added a further three counties, Clare, Limerick and Sligo, and other local authorities may also soon join the scheme as we seek to ensure that all those who need our help get it, regardless of where they happen to live.

I would like to take the opportunity to specifically address some of the elements of the motion that the Minister may not have had the opportunity to deal with in the time afforded to him. The Department of housing has engaged proactively with the financial sector, including banks and insurance companies, on the interaction of the DCB scheme with their services. Banks and insurance companies have clearly stated that homes certified as being remediated under the DCB scheme will be treated in the same manner as all other homes. The Banking and Payments Federation Ireland, BPFI, chairs a forum which brings together various stakeholders including the banking industry, engineers, construction, insurance and the legal sector. Department officials keep in regular contact with the BPFI and recently presented to this forum. The Department stands ready to assist as and when appropriate.

The Government is also very cognisant of the need to ensure that everything that can be done is done so that the situation that has arisen in parts of this country because of defective building material never happens again. The programme for Government commits to the establishment of a building standards regulatory authority. It is intended that it will be an independent central competent authority with the powers of a national building control authority and national market surveillance authority for construction products. The authority will act as a centre of best practice driving, promoting and fostering compliance, competency and consistency in building control and market surveillance systems and throughout the construction industry. A building standards agency will be established under the Local Government (Corporate Bodies) Act pending the establishment of a building standards regulatory authority.

As the Minister outlined earlier, the Government continuously monitors the manner in which the DCB scheme operates. Engagement with all stakeholders, including homeowner representatives, has been regular and extensive and this will continue where needed over the lifetime of the scheme. The Minister shared his own personal experience of visiting Donegal earlier this year where he saw at first hand the hardship and trauma that many Members of this House have described today. An implementation steering group for the DCB grant scheme comprising officials from the relevant local authorities, the Department, the Housing Agency, and the homeowners' liaison officer was set up in 2023. This group meets every four to six weeks and keeps the operation of the DCB scheme under continuous review. The most recent engagement took place last month and the group is due to meet again in the coming week or so. The group has given some valuable insights into how the scheme is working. It has helped to identify areas to improve scheme implementation, some of which have already been actioned and some more of which may yet be covered by upcoming primary legislative change.

Section 51 of the Remediation of Dwellings Damaged by the Use of Defective Concrete Blocks Act 2022 mandates that the Minister commence a review of the operation of the Act by June 2026, three years after the commencement of the Act. It further mandates that he make a report to each House of the Oireachtas regarding the findings and conclusions of such a review within a further 12-month period. Furthermore, a review of the operation of the Act is required within three months of the completion of any review of IS 465:2018 by the National Standards Authority of Ireland. A report to each House of the Oireachtas of the findings and conclusions resulting from that review is required not later than three months after the completion of the review. As the Minister said, there were 650 submissions to this review and the report is due to be published shortly.

I will conclude as I started by acknowledging the hurt and trauma experienced by homeowners in affected parts of the country through no fault of their own. That trauma is real and I acknowledge that. I cannot imagine my own home being in that circumstance. That is why the Government moved to set up this scheme. I appreciate all of the comments that have been made by Members in the House today and assure them that the Minister will continue to work with all stakeholders in relation to any further legislative change in this area.

Brian Stanley (Laois, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this very important motion. The issue of defective concrete was a huge problem in Leinster but what we are seeing in Donegal and down along the north west and western seaboard is catastrophic in both its scale and the effect it is having on families.

The motion is very reasonable. It calls on the Government to "cease all partial remediation", to "reinstate the original determinations of [qualified] engineers", to "legislate to guarantee retrospective support", and to "establish an independent statutory authority" to deal with these matters. Those are some of the more important items that are called for in the motion.

It is really important to note that this is not just about the physical effects of houses falling down; people’s lives are literally falling down around them. People are paying huge mortgages for houses that are now crumbling. That is before health and safety issues and the effects they are having on people’s health are taken into account.

The appeals system, whereby appeals are left unresolved over a protracted period of time, is adding to these problems. The appeals system needs to be accelerated because clearly there are problems with it. Some homeowners have been forced into cheaper remediation works and downgrades. Many of those on whom these extra costs are being imposed are already stretched or in arrears with their mortgages, and that is before the added cost of renting accommodation is taken into account. That all has to be factored into consideration.

The remedial scheme has been, at times, pitched more like a grant than a remediation scheme. That is not good enough. This is not the fault of the people living in the homes. The people who bought or built these homes had no control over what kind of material was going into them, but the State can have an influence on this. People have no choice but to stay in these unsafe homes. It is important that the motion covers social housing, crèches, community facilities and businesses.

In 2014, the former Minister, Phil Hogan, brought forward the Building Control (Amendment) Regulations 2014, SI 9 of that year. I remind the House that prior to this, Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats had crashed the building industry and economy, leaving every worker to pay an average of €400 per year, depending on interest rates. The black hole that was created during the economic crash had been caused by the Progressive Democrats and Fianna Fáil during the 2000s. The Building Control (Amendment) Regulations 2014 were an attempt to rectify a flaw in building standards and certification. I challenged Phil Hogan on this at the time. He put in place a system whereby the role would be carried out by a competent registered professional. The problem, which has not been rectified, is that the assigned certifier is appointed by the building owner, which means this is another form of self-certification. There is a flaw in building controls in this country. Regardless of what body or office is set up by the Minister, that flaw will remain until it is addressed. I raised this with Phil Hogan several times on the floor of the Dáil 11 years ago.

When it comes to the quarries, we cannot undo the past. We have to try to deal with the problem now. It is a big problem for the Government, the Opposition, society, taxpayers and the building industry to remediate and sort out all of this, but we need to stop these things from happening. Spot checks of the material coming out of quarries are needed in the interests of quality control. Quarry owners should know that there could be a spot check at any time that would stop the operation of the quarry. I am not trying to obstruct building work because we need to speed up a lot of it. Rather, I wish to ensure that samples are taken and tested scientifically and, where there is evidence of defective material, the quarry ceases operation. I appeal to the Government to bring in a system whereby the local authority or some other competent authority carries out that work. That is all I am going to say on the matter. I will leave it to the experts and the people of Donegal to carry on the discussion.

Charles Ward (Donegal, 100% Redress Party)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I wish to address the remarks of the Minister of State, Deputy McConalogue, about how he has got this "to where it is today". I will clarify where it is today. We have a scheme right now that has 74 houses that are completed. Another 70 have received outer-leaf remediation work only and still retain the blockwork. This amounts to approximately 140 houses, half of which will have to be redone at great expense to the Exchequer. The Minister of State failed to mention that 300 houses that are on the scheme are commencements. You cannot live in a commencement; you live in a completion. That is what has happened with this Government in the past. We cannot be fooled. Commencement is when you go to build. It could take years to build. Completion is what you live in. The Minister of State’s statement is misleading.

I genuinely believe that if Deputy Gallagher had been in the Government when this was coming to pass, and if Micheál Martin had any loyalty and recognised talent and loyalty to people who have served him, he probably would have prevented this from becoming the mess it is now.

The Government has proposed an amendment that will delete every single word of our motion. Given that those words were shaped by those who have experienced this issue, the Government is not just striking out sentences on a page; it is striking out people’s truth. It is telling us and the country that what we have seen with our own eyes and endured somehow does not count. The Minister, Deputy Browne, came into the Chamber for a very brief time today and he has not had the respect to return. That is another let-down for the people of Donegal. That is no slight on the Minister of State, Deputy Cummins, who is present in his place. The Minister, Deputy Browne, said he would take those voices on board, but he has not. This amendment wipes out all traces of their voices. It wipes them out. This is deeply personal. It tells those families that their reality is inconvenient and that their pain can be edited out of the record. What we face this morning is not an amendment; it is an erasure of all we have said. It is a dereliction of duty. It is not telling the truth. It is wiping away the stories in order to fit the Government’s narrative. What this amendment really amounts to is cruelty. It is dressed-up grievance. It sounds like power turning its back on its citizens. That is what the Government is doing.

The Government says it is a 100% scheme. The Government is telling that to the very people who cannot afford to let their children go to university because they have chosen the immediate future of a safe house over their child’s future. That is what we are facing every single day. The Government is telling us it is acceptable that families are trapped in homes where their children’s drawings are covered at the back with the black mould they breathe in daily. The Government is telling us it is acceptable that pensioners cannot sleep because they are afraid of the gable wall falling on top of them.

The science has moved on and the cracks have deepened, but the Government pretends that nothing has changed. It continues to fund partial repairs under a standard that is unfit and currently under review. This is not leadership; it is denial. It is a denial that will keep people in limbo and worsen the trauma. Every €1 spent on a flawed fix is €1 wasted to the Exchequer. The homeowners of Donegal, Mayo, Clare and Limerick have carried themselves with a grace that this State has not earned. They have organised, researched, pleaded and waited, but they are still being failed.

I thank every Member of the Opposition, including every party and Independent, who came together for this motion. They did not do this for political gain and I will be truly grateful to them. They have proved that compassion and courage can still cross party lines. The people of Donegal will never forget them for that. The Government may have the numbers to pass its amendment, but it does not have the moral authority. When each Government TD votes tonight, they will not just be deleting a motion; they will be deleting the last thread of trust that many families still have in the State. History will remember this night and I will remember it when I am faced with evidence that the Government chose to look away. When given the testimony of those affected, the Government has silenced them. When asked for hope, it has offered nothing but spin.

I assure the homeowners that their voice is heard in this House, even if the Government tries to tear it down. Their truth will outlast this vote. The cracks in their homes may run deep, but the cracks in this Government’s credibility run even deeper still. The Government can delete the words on this page, but it cannot delete the truth. The Government can vote down motions, but it cannot vote away responsibility. The people will remember and we will demand better. One day, we will get it.

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context

In accordance with Standing Order 85(2), the division is postponed until the weekly division time this evening.