Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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The Programme for Government sets out a number of commitments in respect of the important policy area of addressing building defects. These include a commitment to examine defects in housing, having regard to the recommendations of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing’s report Safe as Houses? and to assist owners of latent defect properties, by identifying options for those impacted by defects, to access low-cost, long-term finance.  Housing for All, the Government’s national plan on housing to 2030, reiterates these commitments. 

In this regard, in advance of the establishment of the working group to examine defects in housing, my Department actively engaged with key stakeholders on the proposed remit of the group.  In this regard, submissions from homeowner representative groups focused on multi-unit developments.

The working group to examine defects in housing held its first meeting in March 2021.  The group’s terms of reference, which were agreed and adopted in May 2021, focused on fire safety, structural safety and water ingress defects in purpose-built apartment buildings, including duplexes, constructed between 1991 and 2013.  The report of the working group ‘Defect in Apartments’ was published at the end of July 2022 and I am currently, in consultation with Government colleagues, in the process of developing options with a view to providing support to homeowners who find themselves in a difficult financial situation through no fault of their own.

In addition, in response to the difficulties that homeowners are facing due to the presence of deleterious material in their houses, my Department has put a number of measures in place to support homeowners including providing considerable financial assistance to remediate their homes. These include the Pyrite Remediation Scheme and the Defective Concrete Blocks Scheme, both of which are underpinned by legislation.