Brendan Ryan (Dublin Fingal, Labour)
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114. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government the funding for the pyrite remediation scheme to cover the remediation of pyrite damaged homes for each year since its inception to date in 2017; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24797/17]

Brendan Ryan (Dublin Fingal, Labour)
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115. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government his plans to broaden the terms of the pyrite resolution board to include level one homes as a matter of urgency. [24800/17]

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 114 and 115 together.

The Pyrite Resolution Act 2013 provides the statutory framework for the establishment of the Pyrite Resolution Board and for the making of a pyrite remediation scheme to be implemented by the Board with support from the Housing Agency.  The pyrite remediation scheme is a scheme of “last resort” and is limited in its application and scope.   The full conditions for eligibility under the scheme are set out in the scheme which is available on the Board’s website, www.pyriteboard.ie.

The scheme is applicable to dwellings, which are subject to significant damage attributable to pyritic heave established, in accordance with I.S. 398-1:2013 - Reactive pyrite in sub-floor hardcore material – Part 1: Testing and categorisation protocol.  In this regard, it is a condition of eligibility under the scheme that an application to the Board must be accompanied by a Building Condition Assessment with a Damage Condition Rating of 2.  Dwellings which do not have a Damage Condition Rating of 2 are not eligible to apply under the scheme.  This ensures that, having regard to the available resources, the focus of the scheme is on dwellings which are most severely damaged by pyritic heave.  I have no proposals to amend this eligibility criterion.

Some €2.2 million was provided to the Housing Agency in 2014 to meet expenditure incurred under the scheme in respect of design work, contractors, expenses to homeowners, operational costs, the administrative costs to the Housing Agency and the remediation of 5 dwellings in the final quarter of that year.

An additional sum of €10 million was made available in Budget 2015 to fund the operation of the scheme in 2015.  A further 148 dwellings had remedial works completed under the scheme in 2015.

An allocation of €19 million was provided for the pyrite remediation scheme in Budget 2016 to meet activity under the scheme in 2016.  Sanction for a further €7.6 million to support additional activity under the scheme last year was granted in late August 2016.  Some 400 dwellings were remediated under the scheme in 2016. 

A sum of €22 million was announced under Budget 2017 to fund the operation of the pyrite remediation scheme in 2017.  This allocation will facilitate the remediation of some 400 additional dwellings this year and is a clear signal of the continuing importance attached by Government to addressing the issue of significant pyritic damage in private dwellings.  As at end April 2017 an aggregate total of 701 dwellings were completed since the scheme was first introduced.