Junior housing minister Damien English has said that the Mica redress scheme will be ready for repair works to begin on homes in autumn 2019.
The plans follow the allocation of €20million from the government for grants to cover remediation works to dwellings that have been damaged due to defective concrete blocks.
It is estimated that as many as 4,800 dwellings in Donegal and 345 in Mayo are affected by the Mica-defective blocks.
Speaking in the Dáil yesterday, Damien English TD said that the Department of Housing is trying to get the scheme up and running ‘as quickly as possible’.
He said there has been ongoing engagement with Donegal and Mayo County Councils to get plans finalised, adding: “It looks like it will be the autumn. I told the residents last year that we had hoped to have been fixing houses by now but we are a few months behind. We should be in a position to fix houses by the autumn.”
The Junior Minister’s comments were in response to questions from Charlie McConalogue TD, who sought details of the scheme.
Donegal Deputy McConalogue criticised the department and said there has been ‘dilly-dallying’ with the redress scheme since 2016. He called for clear action:
“A couple of weeks before the local elections we received further confirmation that there would be a scheme but instead of the terms and conditions being published, we were told that officials from the Department would travel to meet Donegal County Council staff to discuss the detail of the scheme.
“Today, we still do not know the detail of the scheme. We are being asked now to accept that houses will be fixed in the autumn. I sincerely hope they will be but the foot-dragging on this has to stop,” Deputy McConalogue said.
Tags: