Redress campaigners to be briefed by Housing Minister on new scheme

Defective blocks campaigners are urging housing minister Darragh O'Brien to take the views of homeowners into account ahead of the publication of regulations for the enhanced redress scheme.

Members of the Mica Action Group, as well as defective blocks campaigners from Limerick, Mayo and Clare, are due to have a virtual briefing with the minister today on the regulations for the enhanced €2.2bn scheme.

The regulations are expected to be published in the coming weeks after submissions from local authorities and campaign groups were submitted earlier this year.

Mr O’Brien has been urged to take on board concerns from homeowners about the scheme - which to date has only seen a few dozen houses rebuilt - and deliver a “fit for purpose scheme”.

Lisa Hone of the Mica Action Group said the group has made “very detailed” submissions to the minister, adding that progress must be made on issues such as temporary housing, the cap on costs, testing of foundations and penalty-free downsizing.

She said the group has detailed the experiences of homeowners and the issues they have with the current scheme to the department.

“Homeowners have waited far too long and it is extremely frustrating,” Ms Hone said.

“We are coming up to the third year anniversary of the initial scheme coming into place and the figure of how many houses have gone through the scheme is absolutely appalling.”

There has not been a proper explanation why some of the initiatives “that have come from the grassroots” would not form part of the scheme, she said.

“Homeowners are absolutely desperate about trying to find a way forward in the scheme. We have a flawed scheme and the Government has a second bite at the cherry in getting this right and has received every possible piece of information they could possibly need to make good decisions that are centred around the homeowners and what the homeowners need to get them out of this dire situation.”

Paddy Diver of the 100% Redress No Less group said Mr O’Brien has “the gift to give” on the issues which are affecting homeowners.

He said the minister needs to come to Donegal and visit affected homeowners before the regulations are published. One of the main issues is the transfer of eligibility for pensioners living in homes with defective blocks, he said.

“If that is not there, it is telling them that their home will die with them.”

He said the delays homeowners are facing in the scheme is “head-wrecking”.

“In Donegal, people have been left to fend for themselves - thrown to the wolves.”

He said the lack of emergency accommodation for homeowners “is a disgrace”.

“That means people might have to uproot their children, possibly take them out of schools and put them into new schools. They are going through a hard enough time, the stress is bad enough without having to uproot them from school.”

Cllr Martin McDermott, who is chair of the council’s mica redress committee, said there has been no correspondence to the council from the department on when the regulations will be published, although he expects that to be the “coming weeks”.

The Fianna Fáil councillor said the council made a “quite comprehensive” submission which raised a number of concerns, but there has been no engagement from the department since.

“The thrust of what the council was saying to the department was that we need clarity on how this is going to work on a daily basis. We don’t have that clarity but maybe that clarity will come with the regulations and the guidelines.”