'Humanitarian' aid for worst affected defective block homes on the way

Nine homeowners initially and potentially as many as 22 are in line to receive payments of up to €20,000 for alternative accommodation and storage due to their properties being rendered uninhabitable due to damage caused by defective concrete blocks.

With regulations governing the payout of further money to affected homeowners is still the subject of Department of Housing processes, including the streamlining of regulations attached to the Remediation of Dwellings Damaged by the Use of Defective Concrete Blocks Act 2022 which is expected to be ready next month, the department has agreed, on humanitarian grounds, to put some of the cash for the neediest cases out now.

This news broke following a testy and at times fractious special meeting of Donegal County Council last Friday where councillors and officials exchanged their frustrations on the lack of progress in dealing with the defective concrete blocks issues.

The meeting was called to discuss what steps the council could take immediately to help those families whose homes are worst affected by defective concrete block to get alternative accommodation urgently and to seek an update on their recent meeting with the Minister for Housing, Darragh O Brien.

However, despite news that over 1,000 applications had been received by the council at this point and 478 approved, including 106 we would have approved over the past three to four weeks, councillors were still unhappy with the lack of progress.

Proactive strategy

Cllr Gerry McMonagle argued the need for a more proactive strategy to deal with rehousing people whose homes are deteriorating.

"The €15,000 for alternative accommodation and €5,000 for storage is not going to cut the mustard. It would be unfair of us to think it's all one and dusted and that we have addressed the problem because we haven't," he said

Cllr Michael wanted to know how the cash that was going to be made available would be paid and the criteria for drawing it down. He said he was particularly thinking about people who had already bought containers or moved out of their homes.

He also asked if any progress had been made on securing modular homes as agreed at the council level and which he felt would be needed. To date, they had only received acknowledgements from the department about this request.

"We've heard absolutely nothing since then. It highlights the fear I have that we are being kicked to touch on modular homes."

The meeting was adjourned for a short period following an argument between Cllr Frank McBrearty Jnr and chairman, Cllr Liam Blaney. The independent Raphoe councillor attempted to address the meeting but was ruled out of order after just over two minutes by Cllr Blaney who accused him of straying off subject.

When the meeting resumed Cllr Blaney accused the chairman of not being willing to listen to him and claimed he had been followed out of the chamber by officials claiming he had been intimidated.

"You are not allowing me to ask my questions which are in the public interest which I am entitled to do as an elected member of this council - something that has not been afforded to me for almost two years. Chief executive you will all have your opportunity in due course in the High Court in the cases taken against me."

He subsequently said he was withdrawing from the meeting as he feared for his own personal safety and would be reporting this to An Garda Siochana.

A number of other councillors highlighted their concerns about the delays being experienced by homeowners and what they called the undue delays being experienced.

"More grenades"

Cllr Martin Farren claimed the Government had been dragging its heels during the process and hoped "more grenades" were not going to be thrown into the mix such as questions about sliding scales and foundations.

Chairman of the council's Defective Blocks Committee Cllr Martin McDermott said it was vital any new scheme covered money already spent by homeowners and agreed a plan had to be put in place for modular homes in areas where the demand was identified. He added he felt there was not enough information being put into the public domain explaining the situation.

Cllr Albert Doherty said he wanted to second Cllr McMonagle's proposal to develop a plan adding there must be no more vacuum in this process and communications between the council, the department and homeowners/applicants must be improved so what happened in the last year never happens again.

Other councillors raised various concerns all with the underlying theme of the scheme wasn't working for the people but acknowledged the work and issues council staff had to contend with, including backlogs, in an attempt to make the defective block scheme work.

Cllr Nicholas Crossan asked three questions; could the council build modular homes; did the families who left their homes have to find their own accommodation and had the council have any housing stock to give to these families?

"This housing crisis, which is the worst ever in Ireland, must be settled in Dublin. What can Donegal County Council do instead of sitting in here setting up committees and saying we should do this and we should do that; what exactly can we do to facilitate these families that must leave their homes in the immediate future?"

Misleading

Council chief executive John McLaughlin said they needed to be clear about what was in their power and what wasn't. He said he totally acknowledged the frustration and anxiety of homeowners who had been dealing with this for years.

"We do have huge empathy, even though people think we don't because there is seen to be a lack of progress."

He explained there were three primary bodies involved, Donegal County Council, the Department of Housing and the Housing Agency

"You couldn't help but be forgiven that most of it land on the council's doorstep from the contributions to date here today, right across the chamber. That's wrong and it is misleading the public and you will make no progress while that continues. let's be absolutely clear on that.

"Our role is to administer the scheme. We are not the programme managers for rebuilding the houses, and that is a massive undertaking to do that on what might ultimately be a €3-€4 billion scheme."

Mr McLaughlin highlighted the stress and anxiety council staff were being put in saying some of them did not want to work with this scheme anymore and pointed to the recent closure of the Carndonagh Public Services Centre for two days and an appearance at the building by someone wearing a balaclava.

"That puts us in a different space, you could see what that means to council staff. I'd ask councillors to stand collectively as a body on this kind of stuff. We are trying to get results for people and that doesn't help."

He added he was sure the homeowners did not know anything about this nor would they want it happening.

He said the council could not yet build modular homes for social housing or the private sector as further discussions and funding would have to be found as it would be such a job and a policy change for them.

A number of councillors stressed they should have an input to any new regulations to see what would work in this unique situation as they had been dealing with the defective blocks issue for the past 10 years or more as they didn't want this latest situation to end up as "another false dawn".

CEO McLaughlin said he hoped in the new year they could turn a corner and agreed they would have an open and honest discussion on what exactly the council could do but stressed this could only happen if they showed a united front.