Violet-Anne Wynne (Clare, Sinn Fein)
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342. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if he will report on the pyrite remediation scheme that encompasses counties Mayo and Donegal and has not as of yet included County Clare; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37599/21]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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The cracking of external walls of dwellings in Donegal and Mayo, due to the crumbling of concrete blockwork, came to light in 2013. An Expert Panel was established in 2016 to investigate the matter. It was chaired by Mr. Denis McCarthy and it included representatives nominated by the National Standards Authority of Ireland, Association of Consulting Engineers of Ireland, and the Institute of Geologists of Ireland.

The report of the expert panel was published on the 13th June 2017. It concluded that the disintegration of the concrete blocks used in the construction of the affected dwellings in Donegal and Mayo was primarily due to excessive amounts of deleterious materials in the aggregate used to manufacture the concrete blocks. The deleterious material in Donegal was primarily muscovite mica and in Mayo it was primarily reactive pyrite.

On the 31 January 2020, the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government and the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, made Regulations to provide for a grant scheme to support affected homeowners in Donegal and Mayo. The Department subsequently prepared and issued guidelines on the operation of the scheme to both Councils to assist them in the administration of the scheme. The scheme opened for applications in June 2020.

The goal of the grant scheme is to help a restricted group of homeowners who have no other practicable option to remediate their homes. It is not a compensation scheme but a mechanism for the State to help ordinary homeowners to remediate defects to their principal private residence and return their homes to the condition they would have been in had they not been built with defective concrete blocks.

Budget 2021 provides funding of €20 million to fund the operation of the Defective Concrete Blocks Grant scheme for the counties of Donegal and Mayo. At this stage 475 stage one applications (377 in Donegal and 98 in Mayo) have been submitted and nearly 70% have been approved.

Violet-Anne Wynne (Clare, Sinn Fein)
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343. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if he will acknowledge the submission from the local authority in County Clare that conclusively outlined the presence of pyrite and the prevalence of defective blocks in the random samples across the county. [37600/21]

Violet-Anne Wynne (Clare, Sinn Fein)
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345. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the direction that has been given by his Department to Clare County Council in respect of the homeowners affected by the pyrite issue; if further information will be provided on the new report that has been requested; the projected timeline for completion of the report; and the level of work required to complete the report. [37602/21]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 343 and 345 together.

My Department received correspondence from Clare County Council in October 2020, requesting the extension of the Defective Concrete Blocks Grant scheme to County Clare. A comprehensive reply was subsequently issued to the Council in November 2020.

My Department informed the Council that before any extension of the scheme can be considered, the same rigorous analysis as that put in place prior to the rollout of the scheme to the counties of Donegal and Mayo would have to be undertaken. Following further discussions between my Department and Clare County Council it was agreed that the local authority would take a lead role in determining, in accordance with the IS: 465 protocol, that issues arising in homes in County Clare are in fact due to the presence of excessive amounts of deleterious materials (mica or pyrite) in the aggregate used to manufacture the concrete blocks and secondly quantify the likely extent of the problem in the county.

On receipt of the requested submission from Clare County Council, my Department, in consultation with the Office of the Attorney General and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform will give due consideration to the requested extension of the scheme.

Violet-Anne Wynne (Clare, Sinn Fein)
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344. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the reason homeowners in County Clare affected by the pyrite issue and who have organised themselves into a group (details supplied) have not been included in the recent local property tax exemption that has only included homeowners in counties Mayo and Donegal; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37601/21]

Violet-Anne Wynne (Clare, Sinn Fein)
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346. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the engagement his Department has undertaken to date with a group (details supplied); if there is a proposed meeting in the near future; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37603/21]

Violet-Anne Wynne (Clare, Sinn Fein)
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347. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if he will include a representative from a group (details supplied) in further discussions concerning the pyrite remediation scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37604/21]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 344, 346 and 347 together.

Donegal and Mayo are currently the only local authority areas within the scope of the Defective Concrete Blocks grant scheme. 

The proposed LPT exemption being formulated by the Department of Finance is intended to only apply to  homes which have received a Stage 1 approval – Confirmation of Eligibility letter under the Defective Concrete Blocks Grant Scheme. Homeowners outside of Donegal and Mayo are not currently entitled to apply for a Stage 1 approval and therefore an LPT exemption. That situation will change if the Defective Concrete Blocks Grant Scheme is extended to other local authority areas and a process exists for individual local authorities to take a lead in this regard.

My Department is in ongoing engagement with local authorities and local action groups that are currently within the scope of the scheme and with the relevant local authorities in respect to  discussions on requests for an extension of the scheme to other counties.

In response to concerns being raised about the scheme by homeowners in Donegal and Mayo, I established a time bound working group to review the issues of concern and report to me with recommendations by 31 July 2021. Membership of the working group comprises of three homeowners from Donegal, three homeowners from Mayo, three officials from the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, one official each from Donegal and Mayo County Council and a Housing Agency representative. Many stakeholders sought admittance onto the working group including public representative and engineers. In order to keep the group manageable in the context of a time bound period for reporting, the group was limited to 12. For that reason homeowner representation was restricted to Donegal and Mayo. I am satisfied that the homeowners of Donegal and Mayo, who make up 50% of the working group, can adequately represent the views of all homeowners who may be affected, regardless of their location.