Written answers

Wednesday, 14 November 2018

Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government

Grant Payments

Photo of Clare DalyClare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent)
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290. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the manner in which residents from outside counties Donegal and Mayo will be able to access the mica redress scheme in circumstances in which they can demonstrate that they have been affected. [47365/18]

Photo of Clare DalyClare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent)
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291. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the way in which homeowners will be able to access remediation in view of the fact that the report commissioned by the NSAI earlier in 2018 and the development of the Irish standards for assessment of block contamination, which revealed that contamination cases had occurred in the north Leinster, including Fingal. [47366/18]

Photo of Damien EnglishDamien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 290 and 291 together.

In 2013, the issue of external walls of dwellings displaying significant cracking in Donegal was raised with my Department. The nature of the problem related to the crumbling of the concrete blockwork in the external walls of affected dwellings, thereby compromising their structural integrity and giving rise to considerable personal distress to the many homeowners involved. At that time, several hundred homes were suspected to be affected in north Donegal. The presence of muscovite mica in abundant quantities in the aggregate constituent of the concrete blocks was suggested as being one of the main factors contributing to the deterioration of the concrete blocks.

By the end of 2013, similar problems had also come to light in both public and private dwellings located in west Mayo and Mayo County Council submitted a report to my Department on problems that had been identified with the concrete blockwork in their social housing stock. In this instance, it was the presence of pyrite in the aggregate constituent of the concrete block that was suggested as being one of the main factors contributing to the deterioration of the concrete blocks. The emergence of similar problems among private households located in County Mayo was also reported in 2013.

Over the course of 2014 and 2015, there were significant representations, media reports and letters from affected homeowners illustrating the increasing scale of the problems emerging in the two counties, the progressive nature of the external wall cracking and the resultant structural distress in the affected properties.

An Expert Panel on Concrete Blocks was established by my Department in 2016 and its terms of reference were limited to the investigation of the problems that have emerged in the concrete blockwork of certain dwellings in Counties Donegal and Mayo.

Under Budget 2019, the Government approved in principle the development of a grant scheme of financial assistance to support affected homeowners in the two counties to carry out the necessary remediation works to dwellings that have been damaged due to defective concrete blocks. Work is underway in my Department on the development of such a scheme, including discussions with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform in relation to funding and taking into account all considerations. It is intended to revert to Government with proposals for the scheme by the end of the year, with a view to publishing details of the scheme as soon as possible thereafter.

A standardised protocol is currently being developed by the National Standards Authority of Ireland (NSAI), which can be used to assess and categorise the damage in properties where the concrete blocks are suspected to contain the minerals mica or pyrite and it will inform the course of action in relation to remedial works for all such affected properties. It is expected that the standardised protocol will be published in the coming weeks and can be used by home owners anywhere in the country.

Neither my Department nor the NSAI are aware of the report referred to by the Deputy.

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