A representative from the North Mayo Mica Action Group made an impassioned plea to a Dail committee this week asking that affected home owners be placed 'front and centre' and looked after properly under the proposed defective block redress scheme.
This week, Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Darragh O’ Brien TD, launched the enhanced Defective Concrete Blocks (DCB ) Grant Scheme to provide financial support to affected home owners in counties Mayo, Donegal, Limerick and Clare, whose dwellings have been damaged by the use of defective concrete blocks in construction, announcing that grants of up to €420,000 are available, depending on the works required.
However, speaking to the Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage which held two sessions yesterday, Thursday, 13 July, to discuss the Defective Block Scheme regulations and review of IS 465 with stakeholders, Martina Hegarty, North Mayo Mica Action Group, speaking via an online link, told the committee:
"While the government is seeking more information for the scheme to evolve, home owners are being hospitalised, some are on endless medication; does the government really understand the mental torture that is being placed on home owners, of defective concrete block homes? Did anyone not think when this scheme was being created, that those who should be front and centre are the families involved? Why are they not being enabled and front and centre on this?"
"Place yourself in the shoes of a pensioner, a young mother with young kids, or those that require medical assistance - how do they progress onto the scheme? The Department of housing has decided to take full control of the scheme; they know they need to offer more funds if they are to rebuild our homes; but after ten years of fighting, all this has done is condemn home owners to a bleak future and being in debt."
When probed to explain what more did home owners need above the €420,000 offer, Martina Hegarty replied: "Right now we are in a situation that we don't understand what percentage of a scheme is covered, because home owners just got details on square foot allowances. Basically, the government is offering a pot of money that is supposed to be used to rebuild a home as if it was rebuilt in 2007, but the reality, is none of us can find materials that were in place in 2007 and the cost of labour and supplies and around everything to do with homes, has increased; also the amount of funding taken from the 420k prior to you spending one euro - €25,000 can be gone where there is thatching needed, there are the VAT charges, possibly up to €18,000 for engineers fees - so up to €100,000 can be taken from this scheme before you can do anything; then the other big challenge is the availability of builders."
Session 1 of the committee heard from representatives from the Expert Group, Society of Chartered Surveyors of Ireland, Engineers Ireland, Mica Action Group Donegal, Clare Pyrite Action Group and North Mayo Mica Action Group; Session 2, speakers included representatives from the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, City and County Managers Association, and National Standards Authority of Ireland.
