Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 22 January 2026
400. Deputy Louise O'Reilly asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if he plans to address defective concrete blocks in Rush and Lusk; the timeline for when the remediation scheme will be extended to these areas; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5179/26]
View answerThe Remediation of Dwellings Damaged by the Use of Defective Concrete Blocks Act 2022 which underpins the enhanced Defective Concrete Block Scheme was commenced in June 2023.
The Scheme is currently open to applications in five counties, namely Clare, Donegal, Limerick, Mayo and Sligo.
When a local authority that is not currently designated under the Scheme determines that homes within their area may have been damaged by defective concrete blocks, they can seek to have the Scheme extended to include any such county or part of that county.
Section 5 of the Act contains details on this process. The statutory designation process can commence upon a request by a local authority or by myself, as Minister, to the Housing Agency. The Agency thereafter carries out technical testing of dwellings.
After the completion of any testing, the Housing Agency makes a recommendation to the Minister as to whether an order to designate the whole or part of a local authority's area should or should not be made by the Government.
I understand that Fingal County Council, in accordance with the Act, submitted a request to the Housing Agency for inclusion in the Scheme and this request related to a small number of properties in their area.
The Housing Agency appointed a Chartered Engineer from their panel to assist in their investigations. The investigations included concrete block testing, as required under the Act.
Subsequently, the Housing Agency received the test results from the properties sampled in Fingal and I received the final report from the Housing Agency on 27 November 2025. On the basis of the recommendations made by the Agency I intend to shortly bring the matter to Government seeking approval for the making of an Order designating the relevant parts of Fingal County Council as being part of the DCB Scheme.
