Mica grant wait unacceptable

Donegal County Council has been requested to put staff in place in each electoral district to facilitate people associated with the council-administered Defective Concrete Blocks Grant Scheme.

The issue was raised By Cllr Martin McDermott at Wednesday's plenary council meeting, held in the Aura leisure centre in Letterkenny, whose motion was passed unanimously.

Cllr McDermott requested: “Donegal County Council, due to the problems people are having with the mica application process, put in place staff to be available in the municipal districts at least one or two days a week, to facilitate people with their paperwork and to upload their applications.”

Cllr McDermott said it was important to begin by saying the staff within the mica office are doing and have done a fantastic job to date, dealing with people and helping them to the best of their abilities.

He added: “However, there is a situation out there where a lot of vulnerable people can't understand how the application process works and I think, as a local authority, it is important, and it is going to be important going forward over the next 10 to 15 years, we have someone locally, in the municipal district offices, to deal with people who are struggling with the application process.

“Because, even when the new scheme comes to fruition later on this year, there is still going to be a situation where people are going to need help. That help is going to be needed for a long, long period ahead.

“At the minute, people are extremely frustrated, with the time lines that the application process is taking. We did make a commitment as a council that all of the applications would be determined over a four to eight week period. Now we are sitting at 20 weeks for stage two applications. I don't think that's acceptable. I think it is unacceptable that are in the situations they are in because some of these people had to move out of their homes because they can't live in them and then they are waiting up to 20 weeks on an application process.

“Yes, we all understand that there are a number of applications there that will take quite a substantial amount of time to deal with because of other deleterious materials and sulphides. However, again, we as a council need to be stronger on that. I think we need to be stronger with the [Housing] Department, to get those answers and to get that dealt with. I would hope that over the next week or so, Patsy [Lafferty] and John [McLaughlin] will meet with the Department. I think that is appropriate and then we can have a meeting directly after that with the Mica Redress Committee, to see where we go,” said Cllr McDermott.

Cllr McDermott warned that the stress levels among people affected by the mica issue were extremely high.

He said Donegal County Council needed to be a lot more proactive than it had been with applications.

“This is something that is not going to go away,” he said. “And I know people will be able to go into the libraries and do the necessary uploading to get their application processes done, however, I do think that the people who are going to be there need to know exactly what's involved in this scheme, because it is very, very difficult and cumbersome. It is built around red tape.

“I am not so sure somebody who does not have the expertise and somebody who is not engaged in this will know exactly what they are doing. There are a lot of questions when you go to make an application.

“I would say, probably the engineers need to do more for applicants as well, in relation to that process, and actually have their paperwork and their application process better than what it has been coming into the local authority.

“We are going to be in a position over the next number of months where people are going to be anxious and waiting on this new process to happen, which is going to take a bit of time.

“I think it is important we as a council are there for people. I know Cllr Niamh Kennedy, the chair of the LCDC, and Cllr Marie Therese Gallagher and I who are part of the LCDC, are convening a meeting with the LCDC and all the state bodies who sit on that committee, and I think that is an excellent avenue for collaboration between the mica group, the council and all of the outside bodies. The HSE and the ETB sit on that committee.

“We all need to start working together here in this county, as a team. At the minute, I think we are fractured. We are all going in different directions. And that is not for the betterment of homeowners or people living in houses that are falling down around them. They need help. They need mental health help. They need help in relation to transport, because some people have to move out of their own areas, to live in different areas, and they have to get their children to school,” said Cllr McDermott.

Cllr McDermott said there was no point waiting on the Housing Department to organise a collaborative body to deal with the mica issue.

“As a local authority, we need to get a handle on this because over the last couple of months it has been running away from us. We need to pull the people of all those organisations together. We represent the people of this county. We are their representatives. Involve whoever needs to be involved, whether it is the Mica Action Group, and make sure we as public representatives are involved and put a system together that helps the people before it is too late.”

Cllr McDermott's motion was seconded by Cllr Paul Canning.

In response to Cllr McDermott, Donegal County said: “The Council has received requests over a period of time for assistance in local offices, in relation to the Defective Concrete Blocks Grant Scheme application process.

“The nature of assistance being sought was initially unclear. However, this has now been clarified and it has been confirmed that some applicants may require assistance with scanning documents and uploading them as part of the application process. I can confirm that this can be facilitated at a number of public libraries, where scanning facilities are already available to the public, and can be utilised as required with immediate effect.

“The libraries where this is available are as follows: Central Library Letterkenny, Carndonagh Community Library, Buncrana Community Library, Twin Towns Community Library, Bundoran Community Library, Leabharlann Phobail Ghaoth Dobhair, and Leabharlann Phobail na Rosann.