Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent)
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376. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the reason persons in counties Donegal and Mayo are not entitled to 100% of costs regarding remedial work and temporary accommodation in dealing with mica in view of the fact persons with pyrite in counties Dublin, Meath, Kildare, Wicklow, Limerick and Clare are receiving 100% costs and up to €7,000 towards accommodation, removal, storage and return of furniture and so on to the dwelling; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34581/20]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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The Defective Concrete Blocks Grant Scheme is underpinned by regulations made under Sections 2 and 5 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1979, with the consent of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, to provide for a grant scheme of financial assistance to support affected homeowners in the counties of Donegal and Mayo to carry out the necessary remediation works to dwellings that have been damaged due to the use of defective concrete blocks. The Regulations, which provide the legal framework for the grant scheme, came into operation on 31 January 2020. The scheme is targeted at assisting a group of homeowners that have no other practicable options to access redress for their home.

The scheme outlines five remedial options ranging from rebuilding on existing foundations to replacing of external walls. The maximum approved costs per dwelling under the scheme are significant and range from €55,000 to €275,000 depending on the remedial option. A grant of 90% of the approved costs associated with the necessary remediation works, subject to a maximum for each remedial option, or 90% of the actual cost of the remedial works, whichever is the lesser, is available under the scheme. This is in line with similar Government grant schemes where an applicant contribution to the costs is a requirement.

Temporary removal and storage of furniture and contents is an allowable cost under the scheme. However, the recoupment of costs relating to temporary accommodation, service connections or utilities are not allowable.

Separately, the Pyrite Resolution Act 2013 provides the statutory framework for the establishment of the Pyrite Resolution Board (PRB), and for the making of a Pyrite Remediation Scheme, to be implemented by the PRB with support from the Housing Agency. The provisions of the Act apply only to dwellings affected by significant damage attributable to pyritic heave consequent on the presence of reactive pyrite in the subfloor hardcore material and not to damage arising in any other circumstance, e.g. such as pyrite or mica in concrete blocks. It is not a grant scheme. The average cost of remediation of a dwelling under the Pyrite Remediation Scheme is €70,000.