Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 9 November 2023
83. Deputy Eoin Ó Broin asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to provide an explanation for the ongoing delay in the provision of emergency funding for essential fire safety and other works for homeowners with Celtic Tiger-era building defects; and the reason for the delay with the drafting of the legislation underpinning the full redress scheme. [49143/23]
View answerI am sure the Minister will join me in welcoming the representatives of the Not Our Fault 100% Redress campaign in the Gallery, from Counties Dublin and Clare. Can the Minister give us a more precise update, both on when the emergency funding for interim works will be available and on when he intends to publish the legislation, complete the regulations and open the full redress scheme? We are looking for something a bit more definitive than what we have been getting by way of parliamentary questions and responses from the Taoiseach and Tánaiste to date.
I too welcome those homeowners affected by this serious issue, which the Government is committed to helping resolve. Since the receipt of Government approval in January of this year, I have made considerable progress on the various programmes of work that are required to place the apartment remediation scheme on a statutory footing. We all agree it is important that this happens. As the Deputy will appreciate, it is complex. There are legal, technical and financial issues and challenges involved in establishing the scheme, many of which we have surmounted already. My Department is advancing the steps to prepare the required legislation to put the remediation scheme on a statutory footing as a matter of priority. Given the complexity of the issues, including the significant amount of Exchequer funding we are committed to providing to assist affected homeowners - the retrospection element is fully agreed - sufficient time is required to ensure that the scheme is fit for purpose and contains appropriate oversight and governance. It is expected the draft legislation will be published next year but it is intended that, subject to the legislative process, the statutory scheme will be in place shortly thereafter.
I have given priority to the steps that are needed to underpin the legislation, but more importantly, to support the introduction of interim measures which can address immediate fire safety defects. A significant milestone was met with the publication in July of the code of practice for the remediation of fire safety defects. Significant work went into that because we needed chief fire officers, engineers and so on to detail what the appropriate works would be. This guidance is crucial to support the development of a practical approach to resolving fire safety defects on an interim basis and to ensure a consistent approach nationwide. That is key to the effective operation of the remediation scheme when it becomes operational. As recently as 4 September I held a public webinar alongside the Construction Defects Alliance and the Apartment Owners' Network, which was attended by approximately 400 people. I have held a number of such webinars since the Government approved the establishment of the scheme. I will come back in during my supplementary contribution with more specific details.
As I am sure the Minister knows, there is a growing frustration among homeowners, as well as among social housing and private rental tenants impacted by Celtic Tiger era defects. We have always said we want to work with the Minister on a collaborative basis and it is an issue the Minister knows many of us in the Opposition have been campaigning on for a long time. The frustration is that the Minister received the report from the working group on defective buildings a year and a half ago. The Minister brought a memorandum to Cabinet almost a year ago and we welcomed the fact that he was promising both a redress scheme and emergency measures. The Minister met homeowners in a webinar on 18 January and he made it clear to them that legislation and, crucially, emergency funding, would be available this year. For some of the families affected, that emergency funding is for vital fire escapes, fire wardens and sprinkler systems etc. I do not want to make this a political argument - we will have some of those in the subsequent questions - because we want to work with the Minister on this. People want to know on what date they will be able to apply for the emergency funding, which is a reasonable question. Also, on what date does the Minister expect to publish the general scheme of the legislation?
In my initial answer I wanted to inform the Deputy, the House and most importantly residents that there is work ongoing on this on a daily basis. We have appointed the programme manager in the Housing Agency, who will be speaking to residents next week when we have a further webinar on 14 November. I am pleased to inform homeowners that the interim scheme addressing essential fire safety works is being finalised. That will be completed within a matter of weeks. The Housing Agency is appointing a programme manager to co-ordinate the scheme. The Housing Agency has the expertise and we have the programme manager in place, who is a senior staff member who will operate this. That meeting with residents will take place next Monday, 13 November and I encourage all of those who are affected to be there. Within a matter of weeks, hopefully at the end of this month, we will be able to open the scheme for applications. We have already done some work on the portal, on which residents have been updating their details of the specific defects in their estate. We have captured a lot of information there. I intend that within the next few weeks we will have the interim scheme open. I understand that there is a frustration among people because serious works need to be done but I want to recommit and say in the House that the Government is committed to moving this scheme forward.
I am concerned about the timeline for the legislation. In a number of recent replies to parliamentary questions the Minister has said that the general scheme will be published within the first half of next year. If that is the case then it is likely to conclude somewhere in the first half of next year, before the summer. As we have seen with the enhanced defective blocks scheme, it took a year from passage of the legislation to completion of the regulations. Therefore, it would be helpful if the Minister was able to provide clarity as to whether this time the legislation and regulations will be different to give people some comfort. If it works similarly to the revised defective blocks scheme, even if the legislation is published next year, it will not be until 2025 before a scheme opens, which is far too late. Is it the Minister's intention that the legislation would expand the remit of the pyrite resolution board to allow it to bring its expertise in defects remediation to this issue? A grand scheme would be the wrong approach. An end-to-end scheme, led by an enhanced pyrite resolution board under the auspices of the Housing Agency, is the best way to go. It would be welcome if the Minister could provide some clarity on that.
The legislation will be detailed and we need legislation to underpin this scheme. We have worked collaboratively on this. The Housing Agency is the lead agency on this and it has extensive experience in that regard. The legislation will be published next year and with the co-operation of Members across the House we can work together to get that through as expeditiously as possible. This scheme will be with us for a number of years so we need to get the legislation right and correct. That is not holding back the implementation of the interim measures scheme. I am also looking at what we can do with retrospective payments next year. We can do that on an administrative basis in advance of the legislation being passed. It is important that we get this right, which all Members will agree on. Our goal and main objective is to help residents get their homes and lives back together and we will do that. It will be a 100% redress scheme for affected homeowners. I look forward to continuing-----
Will it be a grand scheme or an end-to-end scheme like pyrite? That is an important distinction.
The Housing Agency will be central to that scheme.
Will it be a grand scheme or an end-to-end scheme?
It will manage the scheme and we will work through that. Our focus, as my direct engagement with residents has been, is to get the interim scheme set up and I want to get that done and open for applications by the end of this month.
