Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent)
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679. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if approval will be given to the homeowners whose properties are affected by mica, pyrite and-or sulphate to be given 100% redress and not a grant, a scheme that is workable for everyone and every property without the restrictions, hidden costs and process; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20829/22]

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 at the following link:

www.gov.ie/en/press-release/e365e-minister-obrien-announces-enhancements-to-the-defective-concrete-block-scheme/ 

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 amendments to the existing scheme regulations. On the 24 February 2022 I signed the Dwellings Damaged by the Use of Defective Concrete Blocks in Construction (Remediation) (Financial Assistance) (Amendment) Regulations 2022 which amend the Dwellings Damaged by the Use of Defective Concrete Blocks in Construction (Remediation) (Financial Assistance) Regulations 2020, so as:

- to make provision, in the case of an application for confirmation of eligibility received before the date of the coming into operation of these regulations, 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;

- to make provision for the inclusion as an allowable cost ‘essential immediate repair works’, up to a value of €5,555, which are identified by a competent engineer in a ‘building condition assessment report’ and relate to the structural stability of any part of a home affected by defective concrete blocks; and

- to make provision for an increase from 75% to 85% in the value of stage payments which can be recouped to an approved applicant prior to the final grant payment.

The Government, as part of its decision on the 30 November 2021, requested that the current I.S. 465 standard be reviewed. The National Standards Authority of Ireland are the competent authority in this regard and they have agreed to undertake such a review with work now underway.

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. 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. 

The pyrite remediation scheme is a scheme of “last resort” for affected homeowners who have no other practical option to obtain redress and is limited in its application and scope. The full conditions for eligibility are set out in the scheme which is available on the Board’s website, www.pyriteboard.ie. Under these conditions, if on 12 December 2013 a person owned, whether or not jointly, more than one dwelling, they may only make an application to the Pyrite Resolution Board for inclusion of one of those dwellings in the Scheme.