Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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207. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if he will request an organisation (details supplied) to review the costings for the rebuilding of homes in County Donegal and in the west of Ireland that have to avail of the remediation of dwellings damaged by the use of defective concrete blocks scheme given the rapidly changing cost of construction costs since they were last reported. [44460/22]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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Following on from the Government decision of the 30 November 2021 in respect of the enhanced Defective Concrete Blocks Grant scheme, the Government approved the Remediation of Dwellings Damaged by the Use of Defective Concrete Blocks Bill 2022 on 21 June and the Bill passed through both Houses of the Oireachtas and was subsequently signed into law by the President.

The purpose of this Act is to implement and give legislative underpinning to a series of measures to improve and enhance the scheme as agreed by Government on 30 November 2021. Full details can be found at www.gov.ie/en/press-release/328d7-minister-obrien-welcomes-progress-on-enhanced-defective-concrete-blocks-grant-scheme/.

Section 11 of the Act provides for an increase or decrease in remediation and ancillary grant amounts. These amounts can be revised  by Government order not more than once every 12 months. Three such orders can be made and thereafter a resolution of the Oireachtas will be required for the making a maximum of three further orders. The maximum overall increase in the overall grant cap which can be applied by the Minister in any single order is 10%.

The grant rates to apply will be prescribed in regulations which my Department are currently working on and will be no less favourable than those recommended by SCSI in their cost report. 

As set out in Section 11 (6) of the Act, in making an order to increase or decrease, regard will be given to  construction costs prevailing in the designated local authority areas and the economic circumstances of the State prevailing at the time of the making of the order.