State faces bills for fire and other defects in apartment blocks

The Republic is facing further bills for defective homes with apartment dwellers next in line for remediation in 2022, it has emerged.

Minister for Housing Darragh O'Brien has pledged that the Government will "grasp the nettle" of defects in apartment blocks – such as fire safety and structural safety issues – early in 2022 following on from the Government's scheme on defective Mica blocks.

A working group was established at the start of 2021 to examine the issue of defective housing. It has been looking specifically at fire safety and structural safety defects in apartments and duplexes built between 1991 and 2013.

Mr O’Brien said he now expects the final report of the group by March as he pledged to support apartment dwellers.

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The group has been tasked with establishing the number of homes affected by these defects, categorising severity of defects and suggesting means of remediation.

Speaking about the final report, he said: “I believe that will come to me in March. The group is focusing on apartments right now and duplexes and the area of fire defects. There is no question, by the way, that the intervention that we have made in relation to Mica and defective blocks, you know, that we need to help people in our apartments. We need to grasp this nettle. It has gone on too long.”

He said the cost of repairing defects in apartments will be hard to quantify before he receives the report, but that some works may be minor.

It comes as Mica homeowners have called on the Government to drop a sliding scale proposal as part of its redress scheme for those whose homes were built with defective blocks. Mr O’Brien said the matter is being assessed independently and he will have that analysis by February.

Aid capped at €420,000

The Defective Concrete Blocks Grant scheme will initially cover repairs or rebuilding of an estimated 7,500 homes in Donegal and Mayo.

It has a €420,000 cap on support, up from €247,500 under a previous version of the scheme.

The indicative figures for the support on offer in the sliding scale are €145 per sq ft for the first 1,000sq ft of a home, €110 for the next 1,000sq ft and €100 per sq ft thereafter.

The Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland (SCSI) will assess and decide on the rates.

“The remediations will take a number of years. So we need a robust scheme in place. The SCSI will be setting that right and we are hoping that they’ll have their work done by the end of February,” said Mr O’Brien.

“We want to move this on, I think we’re nearly there. We’re hoping by the end of February that we’ll have that rate. We have brought forward really significant improvements to the scheme. It is an unprecedented and extraordinary intervention the State is making for the homeowners because we need to help them. They need to be able to rebuild their lives and their homes.”