Remediation of Dwellings Damaged by the Use of Defective Concrete Blocks (Amendment) Bill 2025: Committee and Remaining Stages
Dail Éireann — 2025-12-10
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Richard O'Donoghue (II), Limerick County

Everyone one of the speakers is talking correctly. They have the experience. I have taken out the front of buildings with 300 or 400 tonnes of stone propped over the buildings. For a semi-detached house - it depends on the era it was built in - there could a 6 in. or 9 in. block wall in the middle separating them or there could be a stud wall built up between them with fire-lined boards on both sides. If you open and take down one property, because they were built as one unit, when one side is taken out that weakens the structure of the other side. If the roofs are cut roofs - the same ridge board runs across the top of the roofs - then the rafters are on the same wall plates, which means that if you disturb anything, you weaken it. If a house on one side is defective, the same bloody blocks are on the other side. If you open it to the elements, you make the other house defective. If a house is built as a semi, it is one unit. It is built as a block. If it is a 15-block unit, it should be treated as one unit and all of it should be brought in together.
What happens if one house is said to be defective? The proper way of doing any other house is to brace it in case you take away something that may have been supporting the house. You could create something that could put people's lives in danger. Is there anything in the Government regulations to say that if one side of a house is removed and the other side collapses and injures somebody, the Government is responsible? Common sense is not that common. If it is a semi-detached house, it is one unit. It was built as one unit and it should be treated as one unit. If one side is defective, the other side is defective. If it does not meet the threshold, it should be based on the building as a whole. That is where a small bit of common sense comes into it. We need to regulate properly for this. By allowing one house to come down, that could deteriorate the other house faster. I said this at the very start when the Government said the roof had to be kept if there was an existing house. It said that the outer walls should be removed. Then it wanted the outer walls to be replaced and connected to the existing blockwork, which could crumble down the line because it has been opened to the elements. It is a sign of madness. Why does the Government not listen to people in the business, who have solutions and common sense? I know as a contractor that if you have to take down a semi-detached house, the bonding and insurance you will need to have on the second building in order to take down the first building will cost more. It has to cost more because it is a health and safety risk. Someone is being left in a health and safety risk situation. It also concerns the insurance of the person in the second half of the house. Will their insurance cover their house because somebody has removed half of the building and now they have tarpaulin on their end of it? Is their house insured? Under fire regulations or health and safety, is that house insured if a storm comes? That is what we are asking. If it is a semi-detached house, it should be treated as one building.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2025-12-10/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:27+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-12-10