Marie Sherlock (Dublin Central, Labour)
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665. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government to account for the delays in publishing the Apartment and Duplex Defects Remediation Bill 2024; and whether he expects the Bill will be ready to commence the pre-legislative scrutiny process by end of 2025. [48337/25]

Marie Sherlock (Dublin Central, Labour)
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667. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government for an update on the pathfinder process, introduced in 2024, as a precursor to the apartment and duplex remediation scheme. [48339/25]

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 665 and 667 together.

In December 2023 the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage Darragh O’Brien TD announced the opening of the Interim Remediation Scheme (Scheme) for Fire Safety Defects in Eligible Apartments and Duplexes. The Scheme provides for the funding of emergency fire safety defect works within the scope and defined parameters of the scheme in order to provide an acceptable level of fire safety in buildings, pending completion of the full remedial works. Apartments and duplexes built between 1991 and 2013 with eligible defects qualify for the Scheme. Full remedial works, which will include all necessary fire safety measures as well as those related to water ingress and structural damage, will be funded under the statutory scheme that will be legislated for in 2025.

As of the end of August 2025, 214 applications to the Interim Remediation Scheme have been validated, having met the required eligibility criteria. These applications represent 19,735 residential units, with circa 76% in the Dublin region.

Appropriate “pathfinder” projects within the Interim Remediation Scheme were identified in April 2024. These pathfinder projects will allow the mapping of the application and remediation process into simple steps, to identify pinch points and their solutions and to provide consistency across submissions by Competent Professionals (CP) and related Local Authority Fire Services (LAFS) workings.

There has been positive engagement among stakeholders, including my Department, the LGMA, the CCMA, LAFS representatives, and the Housing Agency, in advancing pathfinder projects over the past three months. Four projects have been identified, with three situated in the Dublin area involving three local authorities, and one in Kildare. These projects vary in size and complexity, providing valuable insights for both the interim and future full remediation schemes, including:

• Resource Identification: identifying and allocating essential resources, such as personnel, required for subsequent projects to the interim and future full remediation schemes.
• Standardisation of Documents: establishing templates and standards for documents to be prepared by the CP, including procurement arrangements, proposals for fire safety assessments, fire safety risk assessments, interim measures remedial work plans, and other project-related paperwork. This standardisation streamlines processes, ensuring consistency across all Scheme projects, thereby reducing errors, and increasing efficiency.
• Learning and Improvement: presenting valuable opportunities for learning and development. All stakeholders can gather insights, lessons learned, and best practices during the engagement phase with the LAFS, which can then be applied to optimise subsequent projects to the interim and future full remediation schemes.