Is there Mica in the Government’s building blocks? by PILA’s Jenny Salmon
Following a ten year campaign for State assistance with their crumbling houses, Mica-affected homeowners are finally seeing legislation pass through Dáil Éireann in respect of providing them with redress. The Remediation of Dwellings Damaged by the Use of Defective Concrete Blocks Bill 2022 was passed by 74 votes to 69 meaning it will now go to the Seanad.
This should be a momentous and happy time for all those who have campaigned since 2011, however, addressing the Dáil, Deputy McHugh noted how the legislation falls short “on a number of fronts”. Numerous properties have been excluded from the legislation meaning that many affected people will still have to put thousands of euro towards rebuilding their homes. Due to these inadequacies, on the 7th July, Deputy Joe McHugh who has been extremely active in the campaign resigned as the Fine Gael party whip, leaving the Government with a majority of just 79 out of 159 TDs.
The newly passed legislation seeks to establish a €2.7 billion scheme to provide grants to homeowners in Donegal, Mayo and other counties affected by muscovite mica in the bricks used to build their homes. Of the homes built with defective blocks, an estimated 1,000 are social homes which raises the question of how councils in counties affected will rehouse tenants while struggling to manage an already large social housing waiting list?
Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O’Brien, when addressing the Dáil promised that “alternative accommodation, storage costs and immediate repair works to a maximum value of €25,000 are included within the overall grant cap”. However, there is no discussion of where this “alternative accommodation” might come from or how this will be addressed in respect of the existing strain on local housing systems.
The primary advantage to the new Bill is that the scope of grants available has been expanded enormously; there is provision for 100% grants subject to an overall maximum of €420,000 per dwelling, where under the current scheme a maximum of €247,000 could be given. Additionally, there has been accession to the homeowner’s plea for a second grant, if required, available for a period of 40 years and agreement to allow downsizing under the scheme. These are the fruits of the campaigners' labours for the last number of years and something which all communities affected should be proud of achieving.
However, despite these achievements, the legislation is in need of significant amendment before full redress is provided. In her address to the Dáil, Senator Eileen Flynn promises to table “very strong amendments in order to fix this bad legislation” in its next stage. She notably asks the Oireachtas to “bear in mind that the Mica Acting Group Was established in 2013” despite being talked about now “as if it came to [the Government’s] attention two or three years ago” and can all be solved by this ‘cure-all’ Bill, placed like a plaster on the fissures of the bricks.
If the building blocks of this Bill are not amended significantly and a more comprehensive contribution is not given to homeowners, the cracks it has already caused within the Government will only continue to widen.