Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)
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122. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the status of the emergency repair grant allocated to MICA homeowners; if that grant is controlled by his Department or by the local authority; the way the emergency repair grant can be accessed by homeowners who need the grant urgently particularly in view of recent storms; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12044/22]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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I brought a Memorandum to Government on an enhanced Defective Concrete Blocks Grant Scheme on the 30 November 2021. It included an unprecedented suite of improvements to the current scheme. Government approved the enhanced scheme which it is estimated will cost approximately €2.2Bn.

Full details in relation to the changes announced are available on my Departments website. I aim to bring the required primary legislation to give effect to the enhanced scheme before the Oireachtas as soon as possible with Spring 2022 being the indicative target timeline.

In the interim, three enhancements to the current scheme have been brought into effect through amending regulations which I signed on the 24 February. These regulations make provision for the inclusion as an allowable cost of essential immediate repair works, up to a value of €5,555, where such works relate to the structural stability of an affected home. The regulations also make provision in specific circumstances for the recoupment of the fees connected with the provision of the engineer’s report without the need for a prior stage 1 confirmation of eligibility and for an increase from 75% to 85% in the value of stage payments which can be recouped prior to the final grant payment.

It is a matter for the relevant local authorities, as scheme administrators, to roll out the benefits of these immediate enhancements to eligible homeowners. My Department has provided detailed guidance to assist local authorities in this regard and I expect to see eligible homeowners benefit from these changes quite quickly.