Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

324. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if persons who carried out remediation works but no longer own a unit affected by construction defects will be eligible for compensation under the proposed construction defects redress scheme. [4067/23]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

344. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the way the timeframe of construction was decided in relation to building defects; and if support should be extended to older housing stock in which defects have been identified. [4321/23]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I propose to take Questions Nos. 324 and 344 together.

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?  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.  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 Defects in Apartments was published at the end of July 2022.

In general terms, the Building Control Act 1990 which provides for the establishment of building control authorities and the making of building regulations and building control regulations came into effect  commencing from 4 December 1991.  In addition, the Building Control (Amendment) Regulations 2014 which empower competence and professionalism in construction projects and establish a chain of responsibility that begins with the owner came into effect on 1 March 2014.

I received Government approval on 18 January 2023 to draft legislation to support the remediation of such apartments and duplexes. This legislation will provide a statutory basis for the establishment of a remediation scheme aimed at protecting the safety and welfare of those living in apartments or duplexes with such defects that occurred during construction.  

Government has approved the principle of allowing remediation costs already incurred or levied to be covered under this scheme once such costs fall within the scope and defined parameters of the scheme. The details and mechanics of this will be worked out as the legislation is drafted.