Defective Building Materials

4 contributions · 2 speakers · 233 words

Q15 SF Louise O'Reilly to the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage

15. Deputy Louise O'Reilly asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if he plans to expand access to a remediation and compensation scheme for homes built with defective blocks in Skerries; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [65211/25]

Summary of this debate

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There was a protest outside today by homeowners affected by defective concrete blocks from Mayo and Donegal, but also from Fingal. The homeowners in Fingal met the Minister's predecessor in 2022 and applied to the Housing Agency in 2023. One thing I note is how often somebody tells there is something is on my desk when my desk is empty.

I can assure the Deputy that the Housing Agency received test results from the properties sampled in Fingal. It literally was on my desk this week. On the basis of the recommendations made by the agency, I intend to shortly bring the matter to Government seeking approval for the making of an order designating the relevant parts of Fingal County Council as being part of the defective concrete blocks scheme so it will literally be within days.

Built by scoring every sentence in the debate on how distinctive its language is, then quoting the highest-scoring ones back word for word and in the order spoken. Nothing is paraphrased or invented — if a sentence appears here, it was said in the chamber. Drawn from 233 words across 4 contributions by 2 speakers.

Most used terms in this debate

How often each word appears across the whole debate, ranked by how distinctive it is to it rather than common to all parliamentary language.

desk 4

fingal 4

homeowners 3

literally 3

agency 4

housing 5

defective 2

sampled 1

blocks 2

concrete 2

hey 1

imperfect 1

The full debate

All 4 contributions, start to finish, in the order they were made.

SF Eoin Ó Broin

There was a protest outside today by homeowners affected by defective concrete blocks from Mayo and Donegal, but also from Fingal.

The homeowners in Fingal met the Minister's predecessor in 2022 and applied to the Housing Agency in 2023. The Housing Agency's report has been on the Minister's desk since June or July of this year. Can he tell us when he is going to make a decision because these homeowners desperately need some certainty about whether hey are going to be included in what is a very imperfect scheme?

FF James Browne

One thing I note is how often somebody tells there is something is on my desk when my desk is empty. It seems to be a term of art that something has arrived at the Department of housing somewhere. I can assure the Deputy that the Housing Agency received test results from the properties sampled in Fingal. I have received the final report from the Housing Agency. It literally was on my desk this week. On the basis of the recommendations made by the agency, I intend to shortly bring the matter to Government seeking approval for the making of an order designating the relevant parts of Fingal County Council as being part of the defective concrete blocks scheme so it will literally be within days.

SF Eoin Ó Broin

Will the decision be made before or after Christmas?

FF James Browne

I reiterate it will be literally within days.