Difference in legislation for defective apartments redress ‘is deplorable’

A former member of the Government’s working group on the defective blocks redress scheme has said she is shocked at the possible differences between the proposed legislation to deal with defects in apartments compared to what was offered to mica homeowners.

Legislation to deal with defects affecting around 100,000 Celtic Tiger apartments is expected to come before the Cabinet on Wednesday morning. 

The scheme requires Cabinet approval before it will be published but Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien, TD for the Dublin constituency of Fingal, said before Christmas that he intends to offer 100 per cent redress to the homeowners. The defective concrete blocks scheme, which has received more than 1,000 applications from Donegal, is capped at remediation costs of €420,000. The Department of Housing has estimated that about 6,600 homes, mostly in Donegal and Mayo, could need remediation at a cost of up to €3.2billion.

 It has been suggested that the new building defects redress scheme, which could cost up to €2.5 billion,  will not be subject to a cap because the cost of repairing defective apartments is typically much less than the cost for demolition and rebuilding of houses. The average cost is expected to be around €25,000 per apartment. 

Government urged not to delay building defects redress scheme any further

Details of the proposed scheme which have been leaked include retrospective payments for repairs already made, something which has been denied to owners of defective concrete block homes.

Dr Eileen Doherty, who was a homeowner representative on the Government’s working group for the revised redress scheme in 2021, said she was “absolutely shocked at some of the stuff coming out in relation to the difference”.

“The difference in how families who are affected by defective blocks have been treated in the north-west and Mayo over the last eight years in comparison to what seemingly is going to go through Cabinet this week is absolutely shocking - it is deplorable.”

Speaking to Inishlive, she said elements such as payments for retrospective repairs as well as the inclusion of rental and commercial properties had been “pushed back so hard by the department of housing” during the working group negotiations.

“It is shocking that we are being treated so differently. They [defective apartment owners] absolutely deserve to get 100% redress - they did nothing wrong. But equally, we did absolutely nothing wrong.”

There is also a difference in how the two schemes are being treated legislatively, she said, with Mr O’Brien telling the Irish Times that the latest scheme “will be established on a primary legislative footing”. 

“To think that Minister O’Brien has just so easily created a new piece of legislation, which he told us he could not do for us, and we have been forced into another legislative vehicle which means a change in the scheme is very difficult.”

“Families should be up in arms about” about the disparity of the treatment in the two schemes, she said. 

 “Families should be very, very angry with Minister O’Brien that this is how they are going to treat us compared to people in apartments.”

She denied the suggestion that the lower costs of remediating apartments justified any difference in the two schemes.

The principle of 100% redress means the two schemes should be the same, she said.

“Why are they giving those people 100% redress and why are they not giving it to us?

 “I am staggered - I can’t believe that they are actually seriously thinking of treating us so differently. It is absolutely disgusting. It really sends the wrong message to those who are really, really struggling, watching their homes crumble every day.” 

 She said some of the elements of the scheme that have been floated in the media were “things that we were told was just not possible” by department officials.“And now all of a sudden they are possible for apartment owners in and around the capital. That is absolutely hard to comprehend.”