Defective Concrete Blocks Social Homes Scheme 2026: Motion
Dail Éireann — 2026-09-23
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Cormac Devlin (FF), Dún Laoghaire

I welcome the motion. For families in Donegal, Mayo and seven other council areas, defective blocks have meant cracked walls, crumbling homes and years of uncertainty. Until now, social housing sat outside the scheme. Council and housing body tenants will now get the same remediation options, the same grant cap and the same grant rates as private owners. That is fair and it is overdue.
As winter approaches, there is a need to highlight the issue of council tenants living in cold homes that need retrofitting. Under the energy efficiency retrofitting programme works, more than 11,000 council homes have been deep retrofitted since 2021, which is welcome. This year, the Minister secured €140 million for 3,500 more, which I welcome. However, it must be noted that the pace is too slow. The target is 36,500 homes by 2030. At this year's rate, we will not reach that target until 2033. In my constituency of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, the gap is stark. Much of the council stock was built between the 1930s and the 1980s before the State had national building regulations. As a result, many of those homes were built with no insulation at all. The council got €4.2 million to retrofit 100 homes, but tenants in Sallynoggin, Mounttown, Ballybrack, Loughlinstown and Shankill are told year after year that their homes are not on the list. The council says it depends on central funding. My request of the Minister is that in budget 2027 he increase the allocation to deliver around 5,500 homes per year, which is the pace the 2030 target demands and give councils multi-annual allocations, in order that they can plan to do estates and not operate year by year.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-09-23/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-28T05:50:49+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-09-23