A DONEGAL County Councillor has said that the Local Authority must show a ‘full presentation’ on how applications for Mica redress are being processed.
Ahead of a special meeting of Donegal County Council, scheduled for this Friday, Independent Councillor Frank McBrearty Jnr says the public needs to see ‘transparency and accountability.
Thousands of homes in Donegal are crumbling and many homes built using defective concrete blocks have to be completely demolished and rebuilt.
Those affected are demanding a 100 per cent redress from the Irish Government and local councillors will meet on Friday to discuss the crisis.
“We must show the public who we work for that we will hold people to account and we must have transparency in public office at all the time’s not just when it suits some members,” Cllr McBrearty said.
“We must discuss the environmental damages being caused to our county by this terrible scandal to date.
“DCC must present to us a full presentation of how they are processing application for redress and how they are coming to their conclusions and a full explanation on what directions are being given to them by the Department and the council executive.”
Councillor McBrearty, in a nine-point email sent to the new Mayor of Donegal, Cllr Jack Murray, last week, called for a special meeting, which was confirmed yesterday.
Cllr McBrearty has raised further concerns with the current redress scheme and outlined the dangers with remedial works that are, literally, papering over cracks.
He said: “The house could actually crumble and get worse. There is not a enough data or evidence to see what they are going to do.
“We know from the test results we are getting that the inner leaf blocks are significantly weaker at the minute than we would expect them to be.
“It is a point-in-time test and we really have no ideas were they stronger when they were built or are they disintegrating or reducing in strength, which may well continue over time and issues may appear internally.
“We are actually seeing evidence of this with houses that have taken down the outer leaf. As a result we are now seeing cracks internally.
“This has raised concerns amongst some engineers. Engineers are being asked to recommend something here that we have absolutely no idea long term what it is going to do or how it is going to perform.”
The Raphoe-based Councillor has called for a probe into unauthorised quarrying in Donegal and says an emergency injunction should be sought to stop activity at any unauthorised developments.
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