Michael Lowry (Tipperary, Independent)
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163. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if a person (details supplied) in County Tipperary who is having ongoing issues with pyrite and other contaminants appearing in cement and concrete blocks used to build their principal private residence will be able to receive financial assistance through the proposed defective concrete block redress scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [46669/22]

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/

The Act provides for two new local authorities, Clare and Limerick, to begin accepting applications to the Enhanced Grant Scheme upon its commencement.

The extension of the scheme to other local authority areas was considered as part of wider deliberations on the Scheme by Government. I, as Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, may, with Government approval, extend the scheme to additional counties, where the evidence supports such an extension.

Any consideration of an extension to the Scheme would, in the first instance, require the relevant local authority to conduct the same rigorous analysis as that was carried out in Donegal, Mayo, Clare and Limerick. Such analysis will provide the evidential basis necessary for the consideration of any extension of the scheme. Officials from my Department have been in touch with Tipperary County Council in relation to this matter and will continue to liaise with and support them in any application for an extension of the scheme to Tipperary.