Defective Concrete Blocks Social Homes Scheme 2026: Motion Seanad Éireann — 2026-09-30 ============================================================ Joe Flaherty (FF), Nominated by the Taoiseach I thank the Minister of State for his work on this important issue. I echo the welcome for his dad, Christy and his grand-uncle, Martin. I know if it is a school group the Cathaoirleach normally tells them there is no homework for this evening or the next week. I do not know what he has in his bag for them but on the basis of the fact that he served in the parliamentary party with Christy Snr., I am sure he will lavish them with some gift before they go. They should make sure they do not go empty handed. The Minister of State has lavish pockets. I jest but this is a hugely important issue. I also welcome Deputy Charles Ward to the Chamber. This is a huge issue for him, and he has been extremely passionate. I have listened to him many times about it. I thank him for showing this House the courtesy of coming in to hear the debate. That is important. Any of us who have been to County Donegal in the throes of mica, and who have witnessed the turmoil, chaos and absolute heartache this has caused, knew that this was an issue that had to be addressed. We have come on a long journey. I concede we are not all the way there, but this is an important plank in addressing it and being a full amelioration of what was a nightmare scenario. I know lives, marriages and relationships were lost over this in Donegal. I was up there at the time of the Seanad election with Councillor Martin McDermott and saw the absolute chaos. It was like a war-torn situation around his own family home and other houses of siblings, relations and neighbours who were affected by this. The spectrum of it was frightening to behold and it commanded a strong Government response. We are getting there. As I said, this is an important plank, but we need this issue fully addressed and taken off the table as soon as possible. This scheme is to enable a designated local authority or approved housing bodies with dwellings located in a designated local authority area to remedy damage caused to dwellings owned by a local authority or approved housing body where defective blocks were used in the construction. The new social homes scheme replicates most of the defective concrete blocks grant scheme in its provision and is based on the current enhanced scheme with appropriate amendments where necessary to reflect the slightly different nature of social housing. Social homes will receive the same remediation options as those covered under the enhanced scheme for private housing and the same grant cap, grant rates and damage threshold requirements. I was particularly pleased that the Minister of State addressed the issue of staffing within local authorities. There are issues with it and all local authorities, particularly housing departments, are working under huge pressure. I would not like the roll-out of the scheme to be held up through staffing issues, be they in the Department or in local authorities. The Minister, Deputy Browne, brought forward a number of additional significant improvements to the defective blocks scheme in the 2025 Act and these included changes such as providing the opportunity for certain homeowners to apply for increased grants and the construction of adjacent dwellings in specific circumstances. Measures such as these are having an impact and real progress is being made. To the end of August this year, as the Minister of State said, 604 homes have been remediated with a further 794 homes notified of their relevant designation through their local authority. One point that has not been addressed relates to tenant purchase. The defective blocks issue has gone on for a long time and several tenants at some stage would possibly have liked to buy out their local authority home. They have now reached a stage in their life where they are over 45. As someone who has just turned 45, I can attest it is hard to get a mortgage once you get past 45, even a local authority mortgage. I would like the Department to at least give some consideration to the issue of tenant purchase for these properties. The rules currently governing tenant purchase should be relaxed for these houses on the basis that there has been a gap in time where people would ordinarily have bought their house, but they were obviously not going to buy out a mica-affected house. However, once these houses are ameliorated and put back right, there should be a retrospective opportunity for people to buy out those houses. Apart from that, I am happy with all aspects of the scheme. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-09-30/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-10-05T01:00:59+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-09-30