Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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1048. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government following his recent assertion in a motion passed by Dáil Éireann (details supplied), if he is aware that a submission from the DCB Stakeholder Forum to the NSAI's public consultation on the review of I.S. 465 directly contradicts this assertion; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [58754/25]

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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My Department has had a number of engagements with the Banking and Payments Federation (BPFI) on specific issues raised by Defective Concrete Block (DCB) homeowners. As part of these discussions the BPFI has confirmed to my Department that, from their perspective, once a home has been certified as remediated under the DCB Scheme it will be treated by them in a similar manner to other properties. My Department also attended the Quarter 3 DCB Stakeholder Forum meeting on 25 September 2025 which was chaired by the BPFI.

With regard to the insurance aspects of underwriting houses that have been subject to certified remediation works Insurance Ireland confirmed that in general terms, once remediation is complete, Insurance Ireland members would generally consider the provision of standard household cover at standard terms.

The NSAI is an autonomous body under the aegis of the Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment. As you are aware the National Standards Authority of Ireland (NSAI) launched a public consultation for the draft I.S. 465 "Assessment, testing and categorisation of damaged buildings incorporating concrete blocks containing certain deleterious materials” on 31 March 2025. The consultation closed on 11 July 2025 and yielded in excess of 640 submissions. The NSAI’s Technical Committee is currently in the process of reviewing the submissions received.

Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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1051. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government when the defective block scheme for houses affected by pyrite will proceed (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [58803/25]

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 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.