Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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486. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government to outline, in light of his recent correspondence to an organisation (details supplied) and local authorities, including Donegal County Council, on total sulphur test methods for aggregates, the reason homeowners in Donegal are still having their homes assessed under the existing standard, I.S. 465, when seeking remediation under the defective concrete blocks grant scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7124/25]

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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Following the receipt of preliminary results from scientific research into damaged dwellings in Donegal my Department announced changes to the way the scheme works for certain homeowners in November 2024. All homeowners who have been given a non-demolition option (options 2 to 5) will now 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 (I.S. 465:2018) is complete. If homeowners choose to continue with their works they continue to avail of the 40-year government guarantee. Homeowners who receive an option 1 (demolition) are unaffected by these changes.

As Ireland’s official Standards Body, The National Standards Authority Ireland (NSAI) has been tasked with the review of I.S. 465. The NSAI have published an update outlining the status of the review of I.S. 465, details of which can be found at . I understand that they intend to go out to public consultation on a revised standard in Q1 of this year and that this will help to inform the completion of the review process as soon as is practicable thereafter in line with the normal procedures followed by the Authority.

As a direct result of the research findings that have come to light the Expert Group, under the Chair of Paul Forde, has been asked to examine research completed to date and to provide advice, including advice as to any potential changes that could be made to the scheme’s Ministerial Guidelines in advance of the revised I.S. 465:2018 standard.

The letter I sent to the National Building Control and Market Surveillance Office (NBCMSO) and local authorities relates to recent research on the test method for total sulfur of aggregates. NSAI will take the findings of this research into account in the revision of IS 465.