Written answers

Tuesday, 10 May 2022

Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government

Defective Building Materials

Photo of Éamon Ó CuívÉamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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385. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if all houses affected by pyrite and mica in the State will be eligible for the mica or pyrite compensation scheme; if not the reason therefor; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23469/22]

Photo of Darragh O'BrienDarragh 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.

I aim to bring the required primary legislation to give effect to the enhanced scheme before the Oireachtas in the coming weeks.

In the interim three enhancements from the new 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;

  1. 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
  2. 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
  3. 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
I may, with Government approval, extend the enhanced Defective Concrete Blocks Grant scheme beyond the counties of Donegal and Mayo to additional counties, where the evidence supports such an extension.

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.

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