Mike Kennelly (Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House. This Commencement matter relates to flooding. If there is time, I hope to speak later on how flooding events in the past ten years have completely destroyed many areas in Listowel.

Today I bring to the Minister of State's urgent attention a deeply distressing case involving the Gabrielyan family in Listowel, County Kerry, and the limitations of the OPW flood relocation scheme, VHR. The Minister of State will know well the voluntary homeowners relocation scheme, VHR, which came into effect in 2017. This family - Liene and Artur and their two sons - have endured unimaginable hardship. Their home in Gortacrossane has been flooded three times, most recently in 2023, and they were evacuated again in November 2024. The entire contents of the house were destroyed and the property - their home - is now uninhabitable with black mould, damp and structural decay.

The family was approved for the OPW relocation scheme in November 2021, and after the most recent flood, their offer was increased. While this may appear notable, it has proven entirely inadequate in the current housing market. Over the past three years, the Gabrielyans have made numerous bids on houses, only to be repeatedly outbid. The terms of the scheme have severely restricted their ability to compete. They cannot use any of the funds offered by the OPW as a deposit, which must instead come from their own resources, a demand that is simply not feasible for the family, especially while they continue to service a mortgage on their uninhabitable house. Further, under the relocation scheme no funds are released until their home is demolished. The bank mortgage clause, however, requires the sale be finalised within three months of demolition, an almost impossible task given today's housing market.

In effect, this places the family in an impossible situation. To secure another home, they must first render themselves homeless. In one heartbreaking example from December 2023, the Gabrielyans put down a deposit for a house and arranged to live there as caretakers while the deal was finalised. When the sellers learned there would be a delay in funds due to the nature of the OPW procedures, the vendors pulled out of the sale.

This family has lived in fear for more than a decade. Their young sons have been traumatised, sleeping with torches by their beds and racing up ladders to the attic, once warnings are sounded, to save their personal items from flood water. Their mental health is deteriorating, their parents are at breaking point and they have done everything right. They have paid their mortgage, engaged with the Minister of State's Department and the OPW and they have sought legal guidance, yet they remain trapped in a cycle of loss and hopelessness.

This is not just a policy issue; it is a moral crisis. We have a duty of care to these children. The State has an obligation to not only provide safe housing but to ensure its own schemes are designed to support, not block, families in crisis. I therefore call for the urgent review of the terms of the OPW relocation scheme in this case. I wish to allow for a portion of the relocation funds to be used as a deposit, as is standard in private sales.I want to ensure bridging support or temporary accommodation is provided during the gap between demolition and new purchase. This makes sense. Most important, there is a need to review and increase the offer to reflect the reality of the current housing market in Kerry, where even modest homes are now attracting bids in excess of €350,000. Let us not allow bureaucracy to prolong the suffering of this family. They have waited long enough and it is time we acted with compassion and with common sense. As I have said from the get-go, Listowel has been a lightning rod over the past ten years. This family were the first to be really affected by flooding events that have changed and destroyed areas. The Minister of State has seen this himself. This family have been through hell more times than Satan. I look forward to the Minister of State's answer. It is to be hoped we can come to a conclusion on this.

Kevin Moran (Longford-Westmeath, Independent)
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I thank the Senator for raising this important matter. The voluntary homeowners relocation scheme was introduced by the Government in 2017 to address the very serious flooding of those homes that flooded in the winter of 2015-16, including those homes flooded by turloughs. This is a national scheme of humanitarian assistance, targeting aid at the worst-affected properties, for which there are no alternative feasible measures.

To be eligible for assistance under this once-off scheme, a homeowner must meet a number of conditions, including that floodwater entered and damaged the building during, or as a result of, flooding during relevant dates such as to render it uninhabitable and that there is no viable engineering solution that could protect the building from future flooding. At all times, participation in the scheme by homeowners is voluntary. The property occupied by the homeowners referred to by the Senator was identified by the local authority as having flooded during the relevant flood event of 2015-16. The property has a history of flooding as a result of fluvial flooding during extreme rain events which causes the stream adjacent to the property to burst its banks and an engineering solution is not viable.

In line with the provisions of the scheme, an offer of financial assistance was made to the homeowners in 2022 which provided for three options: the purchase of a new or replacement home, the construction of a new home on a site they own, or the purchase of a site and construction of a new home on that site. The offer of assistance accepted by the homeowners was based on the maximum allowance for the purchase or construction of a replacement dwelling house that can be offered, by reference to the local authority acquisition cost guidelines and unit cost ceilings issued by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage as of quarter 2 of 2021. It also included an additional amount in respect of legal, demolition and other costs, in line with the provisions of the scheme.

In light of rising construction costs and house prices since the original agreement with the homeowners in March 2022, the Office of Public Works, OPW, made a number of revised offers of financial assistance in 2023 and in 2024. These revised offers of financial assistance reflected updated local authority acquisition cost guidelines and unit cost ceilings issued by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage which were applicable at the time of the revised offers. This has ensured that the best offer could be made at those points in time, within the provisions of the scheme.

Similar revised offers were made to other applicants under the scheme, who have managed to successfully complete their home relocation. Unfortunately, this has not been the case for the homeowners in question. The homeowners have recently communicated with the OPW to inform it that they have been unable to secure a replacement home since the last offer of assistance was accepted by them on 18 June 2024 and have requested additional financial assistance to purchase a replacement property. The OPW will assess this request having regard to the most recent updated local authority acquisition cost guidelines and determine whether an increased offer can be made.

Mike Kennelly (Fine Gael)
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I wholeheartedly thank the Minister of State. The family has applied for the offer to be revised and increased. Can it take it that it is with the Department and we can look positively on an increase for the family to secure a home? I welcome all the work that has been done. It has been revised twice and the family has gone back again to look for further funding to eventually get out of this nightmare that they have been living in for more than ten years. On the Listowel works, I wholeheartedly thank the OPW for everything it has done to alleviate any future heartache for people in the area. This is my third time speaking about flooding events in the Listowel area. I thank the Department. The Clievragh works in Listowel were a contributing factor in the downstream flooding that affected the family. The works are nearly finished. A report on the minor flood relief scheme works in Listowel has been commissioned by Kerry County Council and the OPW. We were expecting the Minister of State to visit Listowel to allay all the fears of further flooding in the area. I will not finish until everyone is happy with the work the Minister of State and I, as a public representative in the Seanad, do for them.

Is it feasible that the family will get an increase? What is the position on the works in Listowel?

Kevin Moran (Longford-Westmeath, Independent)
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It is very difficult to speak about individual cases but I can speak about them one to one. There is a scheme in place, as I have laid out. To date, 31 homes have received a formal offer of financial assistance for relocation. Of these, 24 homeowners have now completed the process, which has enabled them to relocate and purchase or build a replacement home under the scheme. Three of the homeowners who received offers are not proceeding under the scheme and the remaining homeowners are in varying stages of progressing through the scheme for relocation. I assure the Senator that, at all times, the OPW is available to discuss any aspect of the scheme with the homeowners and to assist them with relocation under the scheme.

My office is open to working with all families. I was the one who introduced the scheme in 2017. There is a ceiling, however. We work with the Department of housing and there are criteria set out, but we are available to assist where we can. I encourage the Senator to go back to the homeowners with a view to their engaging with the Department. Where we can help, we will not be found wanting. The works fall under the scheme and we have to go along with the guidelines in front of us.

The Senator raised a question about Listowel. I have a report and am examining it. I will get back to the Senator on this. As I said to him, I will be visiting Kerry. A date has not been signalled but I assure the Senator that it will be in the very near future. I will work with him, but he can understand where I am coming from in that it is very hard to speak about individual cases when there are so many.