Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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35. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if he will commence a survey to establish the number of defective concrete block homeowners in counties Donegal, Mayo, Sligo, Clare, and Limerick who cannot avail of the defective concrete block grant scheme for financial or other reasons; if he will commence a parallel survey to establish the number of defective concrete block homes in the housing stock of local authorities and approved housing bodies in counties Donegal, Mayo, Sligo, Clare, and Limerick. [11849/25]

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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An Implementation Steering Group for the current Defective Concrete Blocks Grant scheme has been in place since 2023. The Group comprises of officials from the relevant local authorities, my Department, the Housing Agency, and the Homeowner's Liaison Officer.

This Group meets regularly (every 4-6 weeks) and keeps the operation of the scheme under review and is tasked with working through issues as they arise and making recommendations if further changes to the regulations or guidelines are needed. This group provides a useful forum for discussion and feedback on operational and emerging matters around the scheme and draws attention to issues faced by applicants. The most recent engagement took place on 20 February 2025, with the next meeting scheduled for 3 April 2025.

Furthermore, a sub group of the Implementation Steering Group was established to discuss financial aspects of the scheme and included reps from Engineers Ireland, Insurance Ireland, Banking Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI), Department of Finance, local authorities and Homeowner Action Group Representatives.

Following these engagements my Department made changes to the Schemes administration to allow the earlier release of funds to homeowners and updated guidance to enable homeowners access funding for certain work an at earlier stage issued to local authorities on 24 May 2024.

The 2021 Memo for Government contained an estimate of the number of social homes (1,000 dwellings) that may be impacted by Defective Concrete Blocks. Section 36 of the DCB Act of 2022 allows the introduction a Scheme to apply to social homes owned by local authorities and AHBs affected by defective blocks. My Department has been liaising closely with these bodies on developing a scheme and it is my intention to bring proposals to Government in the near future. Upon roll out of the social homes scheme, local authorities and AHBs will provide more up to date data to my Department.