Robert O'Donoghue (Dublin Fingal West, Labour)
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231. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if the Housing Agency has submitted its report in relation to the expansion of the defective blocks scheme to additional local authority areas to his Office; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6867/25]

Robert O'Donoghue (Dublin Fingal West, Labour)
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232. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if the Fingal local authority will be included in the defective block scheme; when the decision will be signed off; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6868/25]

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take questions Nos. 231 and 232 together. 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 new scheme is now open to applications in five counties: Clare, Donegal, Limerick, Mayo and Sligo with comprehensive information of all aspects of the Scheme available on my Department’s website at the following link: www.gov.ie/en/service/8002e-enhanced-defective-concrete-blocks-grant-scheme/.

When a local authority that is not designated under the Scheme determines through the established mechanisms that homes within their functional area have been damaged by defective concrete blocks, they can seek to have the scheme extended to include any such county or part of such county.

Section 5 of the Act contains details on this process. This statutory designation process can commence upon a request by a local authority or by myself, as Minister, to the Housing Agency. The Agency thereafter carries out technical testing of dwellings in a given local authority administrative area. As soon as practicable after the completion of any testing, the Housing Agency shall make a recommendation to me whether an order to designate the whole or part of a local authority's administrative area should or should not be made by the Government.

I understand that Fingal County Council, in accordance with Section 5(7) of the Act submitted a request to the Housing Agency on 21 September, 2023 for inclusion in the scheme. The Housing Agency appointed a Chartered Engineer from their existing framework panel to assist in their investigations and consultations. The investigations (including concrete block sampling and testing) and consultations required under the Act started in December 2023.

Subsequently, the Housing Agency received the concrete block test results from the properties sampled within the administrative area of Fingal County Council which showed that these properties were presenting signs of damage as a result of defective concrete blocks.

These test results provided the Housing Agency with the information required to appoint their Chartered Engineer to commence investigations and consultations.

The Housing Agency has confirmed to my Department that its investigations and consultations have now been completed and its report, including a recommendation to myself, as Minister, is currently being drafted.

Charles Ward (Donegal, 100% Redress Party)
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233. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if the Housing Agency records the internal dimensions of rooms only and does not consider the areas occupied by internal partition walls under the enhanced defective concrete block scheme; if the entire floor area including floor area occupied by internal walls should be calculated for grant allocation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6884/25]

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 engages its Framework of Chartered Engineers to undertake the assessment, survey, sampling, testing and categorisation of the dwelling 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.

The Housing Agency has confirmed they record the internal dimensions of rooms for the purposes of establishing the gross internal area of the floors within damaged dwellings. The gross internal area of the floors measured includes the areas occupied by internal walls and partitions. The Housing Agency carries out the gross internal area calculations in accordance with the Society of Charted Surveyors Ireland, Measuring Practice Guidance for the purposes of establishing the remediation option grant amount.