Remediation of Dwellings Damaged by the Use of Defective Concrete Blocks (Amendment) Bill 2025: Second Stage Seanad Éireann — 2025-12-11 ============================================================ Frances Black (IND), Industrial and Commercial Panel I welcome the Minister of State to the Chamber. Today we are not just debating a routine amendment, we are being asked whether this State will finally face the consequences of catastrophic regulatory failure and whether we will stand with the families whose homes and lives have been devastated by defective concrete blocks. I really do not think the amendment before us meets that responsibility. It does not reflect science, the scale of the trauma or the lived experience of the people enduring this crisis every single day. For too long we have used the phrase "mica homes", but mica is not the cause of structural collapse. The scientific evidence is clear that the real cause is internal sulfate attack driven by reactive iron sulphides such as pyrrhotite. When pyrrhotite expands, it destroys concrete from within, and yet thousands of families were condemned to years of misery without petrographic testing, chemical analysis or often without any evidence at all. That mislabelling has trapped families in homes that cannot be sold, leaving them unable to move, remortgage or rebuild their lives. They are carrying a stigma created not by science but by the State. We urgently need a national conveyancing standard so that homes are judged on evidence and families cannot be left living under a cloud that never should have existed in the first place. We have to remember the human reality of this. Families are living in homes where rain pours down internal walls, floors heave, tiles shatter and mould spreads across children's bedrooms. Parents are trying to heat homes that physically cannot retain heat, leaving them with enormous, unaffordable energy bills. Some have resorted to wrapping their children's bedrooms in tin foil just to keep the heat in. Then there are the downgraded families, many of who have waited more than two years for appeals. It traps people in unsafe homes. It takes away any ability to plan, protect their children and move forward. It is deeply unfair and profoundly harmful. Even for those who receive full demolition and rebuild, many cannot begin because they need tens of thousands of euro up front for engineering, testing, accommodation, deposits, disconnection charges, etc. That is not 100% redress. It is an insurmountable barrier. The claim-back system forces builders to shoulder financial risk and push homeowners into debt. The State, which caused this crisis through regulatory failure, is the only party not carrying the risk. We acknowledge the 8.7% grant uplift based on March 2024 SCSI data, but it came too late. Many early movers were left behind again, falling into debt of thousands of euro through delays created by the State. The scheme must be updated more frequently. Construction inflation does not wait for an annual review. As of October, only 205 homes have been rebuilt in Donegal, and I know that is all across the country. Many early remediations - partial repairs - are now proving to be inadequate. Full demolition and rebuild is the only permanent solution. Thousands of foundations were never tested, even though the same quarries supplied the aggregates. Why assume the foundations are safe, if the walls failed from reactive sulphides? Rebuilding without foundation testing is absolutely reckless. We must also speak about the families who discovered defective blocks during construction. They followed every rule. They used State-approved products. Their home became uninhabitable before they even moved in. They are carrying mortgages for structures they can never live in. They are excluded from the scheme entirely. This is one of the greatest injustices in this crisis and it must be corrected. We also have the 43 early mover families. These families were personally promised by the former housing Minister that they were not going to be disadvantaged. They stepped forward because their homes were unsafe. They acted in good faith, yet today, they are excluded because of the arbitrary cut-off date of 29 March 2024. This date has no justification and no connection whatsoever to the reality of this crisis. It is simply a line on a page that has pushed 43 families into debt. This debt is created entirely by the Government's delay, not by anything they did. The promise made to 43 families must be honoured. What does a ministerial assurance mean in this country if we cannot stand over that? We have up to 2,000 social housing homes in Donegal that are affected, and we have many others all over the country. Councils have spent vast sums on temporary repairs just to keep these homes barely habitable. We keep hearing that a social housing remediation scheme is imminent, yet no plan has been produced. Where are the thousands of families expected to go when there is not one long-term rental available in many communities? I want to raise the deeply concerning issue of side-by-side builds. Only last week, the Government issued a press release promising side-by-side rebuilds for exceptional needs families, yet the commitment is missing from this amendment. That omission is alarming and undermines trust. Side-by-side reconstruction is humane, cost-neutral and protects vulnerable families. It should be available to all families with adjoining lands as it keeps communities together and frees up rental capacity. The principle has been accepted and now it should be legislated for. I have to speak about banking, insurance, mortgageability and the national standard IS 465. Without addressing these issues, even rebuilt homes will remain unsellable. A multi-stakeholder group, including banks, insurers, valuers, auctioneers and conveyancing solicitors, has warned that IS 465 does not work in the real world. These are the people who determine whether a family can get a mortgage, renew insurance, sell a home or switch lender. Their message is unambiguous: IS 465 is not protecting consumers, is not giving banks confidence, is not giving insurers certainty, and is not giving families the certainty of knowing their rebuilt homes will be fully accepted in the housing market. Unless this standard is urgently reformed, we risk rebuilding homes that are unmortgageable, uninsured and unsellable. That is not redress; it is a new form of entrapment. Finally, community buildings, schools, childcare facilities, sports clubs, community halls, small businesses and second homes all remain excluded. These buildings are the backbone of rural Ireland. Their exclusion threatens the social fabric of entire communities. Families are losing their homes, health, financial security and their hope. Unfortunately, this amendment does not change any of that. We need full demolition, full rebuild, foundation testing, side-by-side builds, updated grant rates, a fair conveyancing standard, a reformed IS 465, action on banking barriers, a social housing plan and a State-managed scheme worthy of the people we serve. Let us act with courage, let us honour the families who trusted us and let us rebuild not only homes but also trust, safety and hope. I commend Deputy Charles Ward on the work he is doing and also the councillors Senator Cosgrove mentioned, particularly Councillor Joy Beard in Donegal. --- 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/2025-12-11/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:27+00:00 Sitting date: 2025-12-11