Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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399. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if he is considering changes to standards to include second homes and holiday homes in the defective blocks scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28870/25]

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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400. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if he is considering changing standards to include penalty downsizing without penalties and modular homes to the defective home scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28878/25]

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

The scheme facilitates the remediation of existing houses that have been damaged by the use of defective concrete blocks. The grant awarded to an applicant under the Scheme, where the remediation option is full demolition and rebuild, will be based on the size of the original dwelling or the size of the home the grant recipient intends to build in the case of downsizing. I and the Government have an obligation to the Exchequer and participants in the scheme to ensure that the grants approved are appropriate to the size of home being rebuilt and that homeowners rebuilding a home of the same size are commensurately grant aided.

I wish to emphasise that the scheme does facilitate downsizing, with reference to Section 17(5) of the 2022 Act, and while downsizing may not be financially rewarded under the scheme, there is no penalty on homeowners who choose to downsize.

The scheme as legislated for by the Oireachtas does not provide for modular homes. The scheme does provide for temporary accommodation through the ancillary grants for accommodation for applicants who must relocate while remediation works are undertaken on their property.

The priority must be to ensure that homes being occupied as Principal Private Residences (PPRs) are remediated and Government has therefore prioritised owner occupied PPRs and tenanted rental properties which were RTB registered as at 1 November 2021. Provided a property meets this criteria of principal private residence, or the property is an RTB registered property as at 1 November 2021 it is eligible to apply for entry to the enhanced Defective Concrete Blocks Grant Scheme. There are currently no plans to change these conditions of the scheme.