Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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599. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if he will review the enhanced defective block grant scheme to allow homeowners to have their engineer fees reimbursed if that qualified engineer has recommended a remediation option under the previous scheme. [44792/24]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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As the Deputy is aware, I commenced the Remediation of Dwellings Damaged by the Use of Defective Concrete Blocks Act 2022 (the Act) on 22 June 2023, which provides for the current grant scheme, and adopted the related Regulations on 29 June 2023.

Prior to the commencement of the current scheme, I signed amendments that allowed relevant homeowners in counties Mayo and Donegal who lodged an application to the previous scheme either before 24 February 2022 (in accordance with the Dwellings Damaged by the Use of Defective Concrete Blocks in Construction (Remediation) (Financial Assistance) (Amendment) Regulations 2022), or between 24 February 2022 and 12 December 2022 (in accordance with the Dwellings Damaged by the Use Of Defective Concrete Blocks In Construction (Remediation) (Financial Assistance) (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2022) to seek the recoupment of 90% of the cost of their engineer’s report fees associated with the preparation of an I.S. 465 report without the requirement for Stage 1 approval from their local authority, provided that such payment did not exceed €6,300.

The transitional arrangements provided for in the current grant scheme provide that following notification by the designated local authority of approval of the remediation grant option and amount, the homeowner may then submit an application for payment of the grant (Part/Full Payment) to the designated local authority, which may include payment towards the cost of the engineer’s fee, all under the maximum cap.

A legislative change is required to allow local authorities process these payments at an earlier point in the process and the legislative drafting process is underway in my Department.