Remediation of Dwellings Damaged by the Use of Defective Concrete Blocks Act 2022 (Designation of Fingal and Wexford County Councils) (Parts of Administrative Areas) Order 2026: Motion
Seanad Éireann — 2026-04-28
============================================================

Chris Andrews (SF), Labour Panel

I thank the Minister for coming in. I welcome the extension of the grant scheme to Fingal and Wexford. It is long overdue. Unfortunately, it took too long for the Minister to reach a decision on the extension of the scheme to these areas. Homeowners in terrible situations have been left waiting for far too long for a decision. They have faced years of uncertainty, with their homes falling down around them. Their inability to sell or safely live in these homes has caused immense anxiety and financial strain. It is incumbent on us now to ensure that those affected will not have to face a further unacceptable wait as the councils set up the necessary administrative arrangements to process grant applications.
It has been said that the scheme in which the homeowners have been included is not working and, as has been alluded to, requires radical reform. It does not provide 100% redress. Many homeowners still face bills of tens of thousands of euro. Even with the grant, many are not applying because they know they cannot make up the shortfall. It is taking far too long for applications to be processed through the local authority and the Housing Agency. The failure to provide staged payments or bridging finance is also causing many people not to apply. Even with grants approved, people cannot afford the upfront costs.
In addition, the ongoing delay in the review of IS 465 means grant decisions are not being made on the basis of the most up-to-date science, and options concerning full demolition or the inclusion of foundations are not being offered, even where these options are supported by science.
It is also very frustrating that there has been no progress to date on the inclusion in the scheme of social housing impacted by defective concrete products. Gallery Quay and Poolbeg Quay in Ringsend are examples of properties with serious defects that are not included. What is needed is a complete end-to-end scheme, run by the Housing Agency, as was delivered for Leinster pyrite, to ensure all homeowners and tenants impacted by defective concrete products get 100% redress in order to be able to live in safe and comfortable homes.

---

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/2026-04-28/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:52+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-04-28