Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions
Dail Éireann — 2026-06-24
============================================================

Micheál Martin (FF), Cork South-Central

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. Clearly, the defective concrete blocks issue has evolved. It is a very complex issue, which the Government is addressing in the first instance by agreeing and allocating very significant amounts of funds to the affected homeowners to enable families to rebuild their homes and get on with their lives. I believe in a multidisciplinary approach to issues. The Deputy's basic query is whether IS 465 should be led by independent materials science expertise or by engineering. I think perhaps it should be both. There always have to be inputs.
The grant scheme is underpinned by the national testing standard. We have agencies, including the National Standards Authority of Ireland, NSAI, and so on to determine the standards. IS 465 was revised on 2 June and that revision now needs to be examined in more detail. The Government remains committed to following the science when it comes to homes affected by defective concrete blocks, as per the provisions of the Remediation of Dwellings Damaged by the Use of Defective Concrete Blocks Act 2022. The Minister for housing intends to carry out a review of the operation of the Act as quickly as possible. That is provided for under the legislation. The issue of how damage interpretation is dealt with under the revised national standard will be addressed as part of that review.
In the meantime, the scheme can continue to operate to fix homes for the many homeowners who have already received a determination and a grant amount under the former standard. Since the Government commitment of 2020, more than 3,500 homeowners have been progressing through the defective concrete blocks grant scheme, with grants covering 100% of eligible costs up to €462,000 per household. That is a 10% increase since 2023. Over €336 million has been spent to date, which shows the scheme is really ramping up, with a record €175 million allocated this year. More than 500 homes have been completed, with 750 currently undergoing remediation. Approximately 80% of the affected homes are in Donegal. This is a significant scheme by any yardstick. I do not think it has any precedent in terms of its scale.
The issue the Deputy raised is a technical issue, albeit a significant one, arising from recent changes to the national standard governing the scheme. The changes have to be assessed and a review process is required under the legislation. IS 465 is the national standard currently used to assess damage caused by mica or pyrite in affected 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/dail/2026-06-24/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:55:06+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-06-24