Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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354. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government when he will commence a review of the defective concrete block grant scheme. [4106/25]

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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The Remediation of Dwellings Damaged by the Use of Defective Concrete Blocks Act 2022 (the Act) was commenced on 22 June 2023 which contains the enhanced grant scheme and adopted the related Regulations on 29 June 2023.

Section 51 of the Act mandates that I commence a review of the operation of the Act by June 2026 (three years after the Act's commencement) and make a report to each House of the Oireachtas regarding the findings and conclusions of such a review within a further 12 month period.

Furthermore, a review of the operation of the Act is required within three months of the completion of any review of I.S. 465:2018 by the National Standards Authority of Ireland. A report to each House of the Oireachtas of the findings and conclusions resulting from that review is required not later than three months after the completion of the review.

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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355. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the reason the Housing Agency continues to downgrade the recommendations of engineers acting for homeowners under the defective concrete block grant scheme, applying the I.S. 465 when that standard is soon to be significantly amended by the NSAI. [4107/25]

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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The Remediation of Dwellings Damaged by the Use of Defective Concrete Blocks Act 2022 (the Act) was commenced on 22 June 2023 which contains the enhanced grant scheme and adopted the related Regulations on 29 June 2023.

The Housing Agency acts as agent on behalf of the local authorities under the grant scheme. Once a home has met the damage threshold for entry to the scheme, the Housing Agency engage its Framework Chartered Engineers to undertake the assessment, survey, sampling, testing and categorisation of the dwelling thereafter on a priority basis in accordance with the national standard I.S. 465:2018 and thereafter determine the appropriate remediation option and grant amount in accordance with the provision of the Act.

Following the recent receipt of preliminary results from scientific research into damaged dwellings in Donegal, which claims that the underlying mechanism of damage is as a result of Internal Sulfate Attack due to presence of excessive amounts of pyrrhotite, my Department announced changes (on 7 November, 2024) to the way the scheme works for certain homeowners. These changes, mean that all homeowners who have been given a non-demolition option (option 2 to 5) will be offered a choice of continuing with the work on their dwelling under the option determined or the option of a full technical review of their application by the Housing Agency.

This review will be informed by the current research once the full review of the national standard (IS465:2018) is complete. If homeowners choose to continue with their works they continue to avail of the 40-year government guarantee for options 2 to 5 under the scheme. Homeowners who receive an option 1 (demolition) are unaffected by these changes. Final outputs and conclusions from the research are critical in understanding the long-term risk associated with the presence of certain deleterious materials and to support the next revision of the standard.

Furthermore and as a direct result of the research findings that have come to light, my Department has asked the Expert Group under the Chair of Paul Forde to examine all the research completed to date and to provide advice as to the implications to the grant scheme of this research. Advice will also be sought on any potential changes that could be made to the scheme’s Ministerial Guidelines in advance of the revised I.S. 465:2018 standard.

It is important that the review progresses as quickly as possible and my Department continues to take the lead on engaging with the NSAI who will require time to assess this research and input that assessment to their ongoing review of the relevant national standard, I.S. 465:2018. The NSAI have published an update outlining the status of the review of I.S. 465, details of which can be found at: