Minister defends Government's handling of defective blocks scheme

Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue has defended the Government's handling of the defective blocks redress scheme.

The ongoing defective blocks crisis was the hot topic at a public meeting in Buncrana last Thursday. The meeting was the latest in a series of town hall meetings across Inishowen, organised by Fianna Fáil. Other meetings have taken place in Carndonagh, Greencastle and St Johnston.

In a tense affair, Minister McConalogue fielded a number of questions from the floor surrounding the current progress of the grant scheme and its related issues.

The Donegal TD said the defective blocks crisis has been a “challenge on an unprecedented scale” but one in which the Government has “worked hard” to try and get a “good outcome” and “get the support for people that are needed” in relation to getting the redress scheme operational.

The Defective Concrete Blocks Grant Scheme will be available to assist homeowners to carry out remedial works, to their principal private residence. However, campaigners have argued that the scheme is not fit for purpose, with affected homeowners saying they will have to spend tens of thousands of euros to rebuild their homes.

Regulations for the scheme are currently being discussed by Department of Housing officials, Donegal County Council and campaigners. It is hoped the regulations will be finalised by the end of this month.

Minister McConalogue told the crowd that he “worked hard” to get “as strong a scheme as I possibly could”.

He acknowledged that a number of issues remain with the scheme, “it's not perfect” he said but it was a “vast improvement” from the original 90/10 scheme that was replaced following mass protests from affected homeowners.

Minister McConalogue said the existing scheme had run into a number of problems due to the emergence of new evidence that mica is not the sole cause of the defective blocks crisis.

“The county council, who were administering the scheme, weren't willing to make decisions on mica alone because of the other issues in play. That meant that no decisions were made,” he said.

The Minister explained that following an agreement between the Department of Housing and Donegal County Council on the issue of deleterious materials over 600 families have received approval for Stage 1. Those homeowners will “transition” to the new scheme when the regulations are finalised.

Chair of the Mica Action Group (MAG) Lisa Hone asked the Minister if his Cabinet colleague, Housing Minister Darragh O'Brien would agree to come to Donegal to address the issues with the grant scheme with homeowners in a public forum.

Minister McConalogue confirmed that he had spoken with Minister O’Brien and that he would be in contact with MAG “directly”.

Ms Hone also asked the Minister if there will be a review of the scheme’s cap of €420,000.

“Is the Department of Housing going to review the cap? Because this is absolutely fundamental because there are a minimum of 40% of homeowners who will breach that cap,” Ms Hone said.

The Minister said he is “pushing hard” but it is a matter that the Government has yet to decide on.

Housing crisis

A member of the audience asked the Minister and Cllr Rena Donaghey where are homeowners going to go when their homes are being rebuilt. The man highlighted the lack of rental properties in Buncrana will exacerbate the growing housing crisis in the area.

“People are going to be put out of their homes. Charlie (McConalogue) voted to lift the eviction ban, where are these people going to go?

“People will have to leave their homes while they’re houses are being demolished and anybody who is in private rent is going to be out in 180 days.

“Putting out advertisements asking for land is not the solution.”

Minister McConalogue said the solution to the housing crisis is that more supply of properties is needed.

He said the Government meets with Donegal County Council over its target of building 900 social homes across the county. He highlighted the recently built Rockytown development of 22 houses as progress on this issue.

Tourism concerns

Another audience member highlighted the impact of defective blocks will have on tourism for the peninsula.

He said Malin Head will resemble “something from the 1860s” as holiday homes in the area will be left to crumble as those homeowners from the North can not access the grant scheme.

“Malin Head will be the Wild Atlantic Way because all of the good people from Derry and the North who came down to build houses aren’t even in your scheme. Their houses are going to be crumbling, it’s going to be like something from the 1860s.”

“There’s no point in having tourist attractions if there’s no houses here for people to see,” he added.

IS:465

Minister McConalogue was then asked why the Government was using the National Standards Authority of Ireland's IS:465 protocol.

The speaker branded the decision to continue using IS:465 a “disgrace” and he said people are “going to suffer”.

The Minister responded by saying that IS:465 is being reviewed and he is pushing for improvements to be made to the scheme.

“I’m not a technical expert,” he said. “My objective is to try and get the support and scheme in place for people.

“IS:465 is the standard that informed the initial scheme and that is being reviewed. The problems with IS:465 was the reason why no decisions were made with the previous scheme.

“The last scheme was dealing with mica and pyrite only and through testing it has become clear that other factors are at play. That is why we met with Donegal County Council and the Department to reach an agreement on including other materials than just mica.

“That’s why council had more flexibility in making decisions outside of IS:465. That's why over 600 people have approval for demolition.”

However the Minister was challenged on the length of time homeowners are continuing to wait for Stage 2 approval.

“You've dropped the ball and are panicking now,” said one speaker, who said he has been waiting for Stage 2 approval since 2020.

Minister McConlaogue was then pressed on visual inspection of properties.

“Parents and children are going to have to let their houses deteriorate, with a certain amount of large cracks before it'll be fixed. What good is that to the next generation of kids in this community?”

The Minister was asked if it is “going to take someone being killed” before there is a change to the scheme.

The Minister also heard of people’s frustrations with the redress scheme for apartment owners in Leinster

“The people in Leinster got a 100% redress. They got accommodation, they got a like for like scheme. We have got nothing like that. We’re not getting 100%. You broke our hearts,” a female speaker said.

Minister McConalogue said legislation still has to be written for the Lenister apartment scheme and that the “same principles” that informed the Defective Block Grant Scheme. The Minister pointed out that the apartment blocks had numerous fire safety defects.

One member of the audience challenged the Minister on fire safety, stating that his mobile home almost caught fire during the recent cold snap.

“Do you know what it’s like trying to keep four kids warm in the winter in a mobile home? I emailed yourself and Darragh O’Brien during that last cold snap. Our front socket is three feet away from the gas line, it started smoking and melting and actually went on fire and I haven’t had a response.

“Trying to keep a mobile home warm in winter is dangerous and you need to consider that.”

Foundations

Concerns over the orginial foundations being used in any future rebuild of homes was raised with the Minister.

Minister McConalogue told the crowd that there has not been clear evidence presented as of yet to suggest the concrete used in the foundations have been contaminated with deleterious materials.

“That poured concrete is what you find in a silage pit, it’s not a block, it’s concrete with reinforced steel. When a house is being demolished, all of the blocks are torn up out of the ground, everything is gone except the blob of reinforced concrete. At the moment the engineers have not said they have had an issue yet.”

Minister McConalogue said that 60 foundations have been tested by the Housing Agency and the results are being processed.

He confirmed that if there are issues with the foundations then the Housing Minister would move on the issue.

“I acknowledge people’s anxiety over the founds issue but no engineer has raised any concerns with the Government yet,” he said,

Other issues

Meanwhile, a number of other issues were also raised on the night.

The Minister and Cllr Rena Donaghey were challenged over the length of time Three School Campus and Scoil Íosagáin projects have taken.

The Fianna Fáil representatives discussed other initiatives, including the redevelopment plans of Fort Dunree, the regeneration of Buncrana’s shorefront and the Leisure Centre and the new ambulance base that will be based at the old GP surgery once fully operational.