Remediation of Dwellings Damaged by the Use of Defective Concrete Blocks (Amendment) Bill 2025: Committee and Remaining Stages
Seanad Éireann — 2025-12-16
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Frances Black (IND), Industrial and Commercial Panel

I move amendment No. 19:
In page 30, to delete lines 4 to 18 and substitute the following:
" "(3A) The SEAI may share information with a designated local authority solely for the purposes of administrative verification of applications under this Act and not for the purpose of reducing or offsetting any grant payable under this Act, where it is necessary and proportionate to establish the funding which has been provided, or is to be provided by, the SEAI to a person who has made an application under section 13, 17A, or 23A, as the case may be.
(3B) The information referred to in subsection (3A) may include only:
(a) a relevant owner’s name and address;
(b) the address and Eircode of a relevant dwelling;
(c) the meter point reference number assigned to an electricity account in the relevant dwelling;
(d) confirmation that an application for funding has been made by a relevant owner to the SEAI;
(e) the purpose of funding provided, or to be provided, by a relevant owner; but shall not include any detail which may be used to reduce, offset, or otherwise limit any grant under this Act.".".
Amendment No. 19 is essential because it protects homeowners from the use of information they may have previously given to the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, SEAI, to covertly reduce their remediation grants from the State. It makes clear that SEAI data shared with local authorities can be used only to verify applications and not to limit or offset grants for remediation. It also strictly limits the type of information that can be shared, addressing both privacy concerns and GDPR compliance, while ensuring homeowners retain full entitlement to the support promised under the principal Act.
Amendments Nos. 20 and 21 both reinforce this financial protection for homeowners by making it explicit that any funding from the SEAI cannot reduce, replace, offset or otherwise limit their entitlement under the defective concrete block grant scheme. For affected homeowners to have full confidence in this scheme, it is important that they not be punished unnecessarily for grants awarded that are entirely unrelated to the regulatory failings of the State.
These amendments remove ambiguity and prevent the State from cutting supports to homeowners that they are legally owed.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2025-12-16/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:28+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-12-16