Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank both Senators for raising this important issue. It is one that affects many people and one that has been raised weekly by colleagues from all parties. I reiterate that it is important we all realise it is an issue on which we must all work together to resolve as best we can.

I acknowledge the very difficult and distressing situation that certain home owners in Donegal and Mayo face on account of damage to the structural integrity of their homes. I have seen some of these damaged homes first-hand and have met home owners in both Donegal and Mayo and understand what they are going through. The will is there to try to help people through this difficult phase.

I understand clearly the difficulties they face. I firmly believe the parties responsible for poor workmanship and the supply of defective materials should face up to their responsibilities and take appropriate actions to provide remedies to affected home owners. The Senators may reread the report and see what it says exactly because it does refer to defective materials. That is the root cause of this problem. The expert panel on concrete blocks was established by my Department in April 2016 to investigate problems that have emerged in the concrete block work of certain dwellings in counties Donegal and Mayo. I will not go through the panel's terms of reference again but it was about trying to establish the number of houses in question. We now know roughly the breakdown in Mayo and Donegal. Much good work has been done in gathering that information by the different action groups and sharing it with the expert panel. I ask people to continue to do that and to identify themselves if they have properties in which they believe mica or pyrite is present, because that helps us formulate our plans. A major part of the work of the expert panel and the reason it took time was to work out a process on how best to address these houses and remedy the problems, including the technical solutions involved, which is the key part. Most of the residents who have engaged with it understand the process. We are all annoyed that it took longer than we had hoped, but we understand the processes we had to go through. The Senator referred to other schemes, and similarly there were formulas used there.

I received the report of the expert panel in June 2017. It is comprehensive and addresses all areas of the terms of reference. On 13 June 2017, I published the report. It has eight recommendations. My Department has already taken action to implement recommendations 1 and 2 as priorities. Having spoken to the residents of affected houses, they understand the process and that recommendations 1 and 2 are key to their situation. The others apply more to the future but are not the main issues for the residents currently affected. We had to prioritise recommendations 1 and 2, so that is what we are doing.

With regard to recommendation 1, the testing and categorisation protocol, the National Standards Authority of Ireland, NSAI, technical committee, established to scope and fast-track the development of a standardised protocol, held its inaugural meeting on 11 September 2017 and has scheduled several further meetings for the coming weeks. I am pleased to hear its work is progressing well.

With regard to recommendation 2, the competent professional oversight, my Department has been in contact with Engineers Ireland about the establishment of a register of competent engineers for home owners' or affected parties’ reference. Engineers Ireland provided assurance that it will collaborate with the Department, the NSAI and others on measures to establish such a register.

On 19 July 2017, I visited Donegal and met key stakeholders. Many public representatives from all parties attended that meeting. I met affected home owners and members of groups working with them and other interested parties. We discussed the publication of the report and its recommendations. I explained the importance for me as a Minister in this area of the priority in implementing recommendations 1 and 2. Regardless of how these solutions will be funded or who will step up, and I referred from the start to the many stakeholders involved in this, we must establish the protocols to do this properly. That is the number one issue. The residents understood that, as did the local councillors. We are doing this as quickly as possible. I also visited Mayo some weeks later and had similar discussions with stakeholders there and urged all the various groups to come forward with their plans in order that we can identify the numbers.

I fully appreciate and understand the urgency of this matter. I understand that some people have suffered a lot in recent years and that they want solutions, but I want to be clear that as a Department, we are on this matter. We are implementing recommendations 1 and 2 and will then consider how best we can drive this on and solve the matter. The first thing is to identify the technical solutions and the process. I cannot emphasise this enough. I will not jeopardise this by making a commitment that they will be finished in a week when it will take a few months but the expert panel is there from the NSAI and there are good people with experience on this matter dealing with it. I am happy we will move this on quite soon.