Hundreds of people packed into the An Grianan Hotel in Burt on Wednesday night for the first Mica Action Group (MAG) public meeting to discuss the controversial Mica redress scheme.
Families and friends from around Donegal filled the hotel in Inishowen with kids of the affected families wearing Mica focused t-shirts to mark the event.
Mica kids: The Homeowners’ kids sit in the front row of the public meeting in An Grianan Hotel, Burt
The meeting follows 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.
The Donegal County Council also came under pressure from the group for their continued employment of the masonry supplier.
What is known so far?
Donegal County Council announced earlier this week that applications for the redress scheme will open this Autumn.
Yesterday (Wednesday), members of MAG met with representatives from the Department of Housing (DOH) before the public meeting to seek clarity on keys issues surrounding the Mica scheme.
It is understood that the Minister for Housing, Eoghan Murphy, Minister Joe McHugh, Senator Pádraig Mac Lochlainn, Mica steering committee member, Councillor Bernard McGuinness, and senior figures from the DOH attended the meeting.
Eileen Doherty, Press Officer for the MAG, told the packed hall on Wednesday: “We know that the government is going to pay 90% and that means homeowners will have to pay an additional 10% of the final bill.
“It is important to note at this point that some of the criticism that we receive daily is that we negotiated that, we didn’t negotiate anything, and we still haven’t been given details to the scheme.
“We lobbied for the best possible deal for the homeowners and I can assure you that we lobbied hard and the best possible deal was delivered.
“There is also a lot of talk on social media on whether we should go back to the drawing board, should we look at legislation? If we don’t accept the deal that is currently on the table then we are in a position that we’d have to look at legislation, just like the pyrite situation.
“Do we want to go down that road? As a group, the consensus is no, and as an individual homeowner, that is your choice and it is up to you whether you take the available deal.
“We were never going to get the perfect scheme but, we are positively forward than we were six years ago.”
In the private meeting between representatives from the Department of Housing and the MAG, members were told that the current €20million scheme will only cover the homeowners’ principal private residence – the homes that residents’ principally live in.
Seeking clarity on the issue, Doherty explained the audience: “We sought clarity and asked whether a second home will be included and the answer was no, they won’t be included (in the current scheme).
“It is unfortunate and it is not what we lobbied for but it what we were told.”
It was also announced for those that have already fixed their homes will not be reimbursed from the government.
“Retrospective payments will not be covered in the scheme,” Doherty said. “Payment will not be made for people who have fixed their homes, but we did seek clarity for people who made partial repairs and whether they are eligible and the answer to that was yes, so that is good news.”
During the public meeting, Doherty outlined some constructive questions that had been answered during the private meeting with the public representatives on Wednesday.
- When will the application process open?
Doherty explained: “They have promised that they will work through August and senior officials have been told that this is a priority and the Department of Housing is hopeful that the application will open in September, which may run into early October.”
2. What are the requirements for an application?
“As I have explained, it must be a principal private residence, so it has to be the main home that you live in, however, there was a number of grey areas that we discussed today,” Doherty said.
“For example, let’s say that there has been a marriage separation in the home. Those incidents they will look at fairly and it will be an exclusion to the principal residence rule.
“For people who have had to leave their home due to it being unsafe, this will be another exclusion and they will be allowed to apply for the scheme.”
3. Which homes will get priority?
Doherty continued: “We all want to know what homes are going to get priority over the others and how is that going to be worked out.
“Is it going to be the houses that are the worst will get the priority? Or is there a different strategy? And the answer to that question is that they haven’t finalised those details at present.
“But through a lengthy discussion today, they took note of our concerns.”
4. Who will have total responsibility for the scheme?
“We had it confirmed today (Weds) that the Donegal County Council will have responsibility for the whole scheme,” Doherty confirmed at the public meeting.
“We were told today that the entire process will be controlled by the Donegal County Council.
“Where are they currently with that? We were told that the DOH are finalising the people that will be required, the skill sets that will be required, on the council to run a scheme such as this.
“Following the finalising of this, the council will then start to put these positions in place.
“We did express our concerns that the process could be a lengthy one, recruitment and things like that, and they confirmed that they will look to use existing staff on the council to make sure that this will get up and running as quickly as possible.”
5. How will the payment scheme work?
“There was a lengthy discussion on this question and how it will work. Will it be a grant-based system? Do we have to pay money upfront? The key outcome of those discussions was that they would have to consider interim stage payments for that process.
“There can not be a requirement that the owner has to pay the cost and then claim it back.
“We were very firm and ensured that they understood that it wouldn’t work,” she added. “People don’t have the money to do that and the DOH told us that they would take that on board as a key issue.
6. What is the autonomy of the homeowner?
“One of the keys things that I want to ensure for myself is that when someone comes in to fix my home as a contractor, that if they decide to use a particular supplier in the county then we cannot be obliged to use that supplier, even if they are the cheapest tender.
“They agreed that we will have the right to choose a supplier as we so wish.”
7. What guarantee do Mica homeowners have that the work will be completed?
“The guarantee effectively will rest with the engineers according to the DOH today,” Doherty added. “So they will adhere to the protocol for fixing each house and if they are confident that they have selected the correct repair then they should be no issue in the guarantee.
“We also all need to be able to guarantee that our homes are insurable when they are fixed and the DOH agreed to have discussions with senior insurance bodies in Ireland as soon as possible, to ensure that they will accept the completion certification so that we can get the homes insured.”
8. How much money will be allocated for the budget next year and thereafter?
Doherty explained: “This is a massive strategic detail to us as a group, if we don’t have enough money for the scheme it is not worth the paper it is written on.
“So the budget is a huge issue for us over the next couple of months and the years thereafter,” she added. “And we expressed our concerns and we indicated that we would be expecting a significant increase in the budget.
“We Illustrated the fact that if they take a figure of hundreds of millions then whatever allocation is given next year will be seen as a length of time they expect this scheme to roll out.
“We asked that this is not something that goes on for ten years or more and it is done as quickly as possible.
“We will continue to apply pressure and we have asked all of Donegal’s local and national representatives to keep the pressure on them as well.”
9. Cost of accommodation and storage for Mica homeowners
“Funding (from the scheme) will not cover the cost of accommodation and storage, which is a negative from today’s meeting, there is no doubt about that.
“The DOH said that the Department of Finance is very much squeezed and we will continue to keep the pressure on about that issue.
“We highlighted that Pyrite did get that cost and we should be getting that today.
“But the answer that we got today (Weds) is that it will not be covered to get as much funding as possible for the homes.”
MICA public meeting panel at the An Grianan Hotel, Burt
Frustration and anger remains
Once questions had opened to the public gallery, it was clear that frustrations remained in some quarters, with one member of the audience sparking debate about the divisive nature the application process could cause within the Mica community, something they dubbed as ‘competition against thy neighbour’.
The audience member said: “€20m is possibly 5% of what we are talking (about what is needed) overall, so how do you all feel that this makes competitors of everybody in the room?
“That someone is going to have to put in a submission that makes a competitor out of a neighbour, how are we going to deal with that in our community?
“It could be a really divisive moment for our community when people start to question why their neighbour got the grant and they didn’t”
Opening the question up to the panel, which consisted of MAG Chairperson Ann Owen, Chartered Civil Engineer and MAG Adviser, Damien McKay, Cathaoirleach Cllr Nicholas Crossan, Cllr Martin McDermott, Cllr Albert Doherty, Cllr Martin Farren, Cllr Bernard McGuinness, Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Senator), Charlie McConalogue (TD), Thomas Pringle (TD) and Mark O’Doherty, Special Advisor to Minister Joe McHugh, Mac Lochlainn responded.
He said: “We cannot have that message going out here tonight, that it is going to be family against family.
“Every family that wants to use this scheme must get the opportunity to make their homes safe for their families and that is the way it must be and that is the message.”
The biggest cheer of the night, which led to a standing ovation from one of the main function rooms in the packed An Grianan Hotel, came following a direct question to the Donegal County Councillors over their accused continued employment of a certain block-making firm.
A member of the audience on Wednesday night asked: “Why are Donegal County Council, not only still using the company that has caused this absolute crisis, but they are probably their biggest customer in the county, why is that still happening?”
Responding to the question, Cllr Farren said: “I came here tonight to take on board peoples concerns and with the Mica Steering Group, which will have members from the Mica Action Group on that committee, then, as Eileen has already alluded tonight, we can bring that up at that meeting.
“We will be asking those questions and as I said we are here tonight to listen to concerns and we need to get an answer for yourself.”
That response sparked a flurry off off-microphone calls, with one responder shouting: “It doesn’t take that forum or future forums for that question to be asked.
“There have been plenty of forums over the past seven years were that question could’ve been addressed.
“The anguish it causes people in this room when they have to pass one of those lorries on the road is unmeasurable.
“(That point) has been made for seven years and nothing has been done about it.
“As I said, when you are one of the people in this room, and you pass those lorries on the road, the feeling that you get in your gut…” rapturous applause in support of the statement filled the room before the audience member could finish their sentence.
The organisers of the public meeting told attendees that regular meetings will be held in the upcoming months to keep them updated with what is going on with the upcoming scheme.
Chairperson of Mica Action Group, Ann Owen, concluded the meeting, she said: “I want to thank all of you for turning out tonight. I can assure you we will keep this scheme moving along.
“Each and everyone one of us has a part to play to keep the pressure on your elected representatives to ensure funding is delivered year on year,” she added.
“Finally. I owe it to my colleagues in the Mica Action Group, they have homes that have been affected as well and their continued dedication to this process has been commendable.”
