Legislative Programme
Dail Éireann — 2026-10-01
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Eoin Ó Broin (SF), Dublin Mid-West

Given people's experience of the defective concrete blocks scheme and the interim fire safety scheme, the difficulty is there is nothing simple or straightforward about either. In fact, the Government also took the decision in December 2023 to open the interim scheme. The Minister is correct that 25,000 homes have now been approved but three years on, only 600 homes have been approved and are able to access funding. That means 24,000 homes - these are emergency fire safety works that are to be funded - are still left in limbo. The Government also approved, in 2023, a retrospective payment for homeowners who had already paid those costs. Pathfinders were meant to be funded. Not a single one has been done.
Now that the Minister has initiated the review of the defective concrete blocks scheme, people in Donegal, Mayo, Clare and elsewhere will ask whether they will now get retrospective payments, a full 100% redress and the kinds of supports we are hoping the Minister will include in the new scheme provided by the Housing Agency that were denied to homeowners on the western seaboard. We want it to be simple and straightforward, but three years of delay for these families is unacceptable, like a decade of delay for families impacted by defective concrete blocks.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-10-01/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-10-05T01:01:00+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-10-01