Donegal County Council has now tested 33 social houses in Co Donegal to test for the presence of MICA.
This is the first tranche of houses and are all vacant houses in the Letterkenny/Milford and Inishowen Municipal Districts.
The information was given to Councillor Gerry Mc Monagle at yesterday’s meeting of the Letterkenny/Milford Municipal Authority.
Councillor Mc Monagle asked how many social houses in Letterkenny MD have now been tested for MICA and when will we get the report and results?
The Council said it has engaged with officials of the Department of Housing, Local Government & Heritage in order to highlight the issue of Mica within social houses, and to source funding for the remediation of affected houses.
As a result of this engagement, it was recommended that the council should follow the testing and assessment process similar to the Scheme for private homeowners.
The Council has commenced this process, which involves a range of steps including the taking of core samples from external, internal and rising walls, submission of the samples to laboratories for testing, the preparation of Building Condition Assessments, and the preparation of a final Engineers Report in respect of each house.
The primary focus of the first tranche of thirty three houses relates to vacant properties in the Letterkenny/Milford and Inishowen Municipal Districts. Fifteen of the houses that have been tested are in the Letterkenny/Milford MD.
The reply added that it is anticipated that all testing and analysis will be completed shortly on these houses, and an application for funding can then be submitted to the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage.
The council said it will be in a position to share the outcome of the testing and analysis at that time.
“Once we obtain funding approval, we will proceed to tender, so that we can commence remedial works on the first tranche of houses as soon as possible. In parallel with same, we will be preparing applications for the further tranches of houses on a continuous rolling basis,” concluded the answer.
