Home owners seeking 100% of the costs of fixing their Mica-riddled homes may not be able to avail of the new scheme until 2023, after a Minister today confirmed the new scheme will need to be grounded in brand new legislation.
The current 90% scheme didn’t require a new law because homeowners were making a 10 per cent contribution.
That scheme was ultimately declared unaffordable by homeowners after the Department of Finance removed additional costs from the final draft. The new campaign switched its focus to a 100 per cent scheme as a result.
Today Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien told Claire Byrne on RTÉ Radio 1 that a new scheme to be published in the next few weeks will require new legislation.
Government may be prevented from rushing the new law through Dáil Éireann if TDs and Senators in other counties introduce a raft of amendments to include different building faults across the country.
Minister O’Brien told Claire Byrne that he was committed to working on the scheme and enhancing the scheme to include up-front costs, renting and storage costs.
“I inherited this scheme. It was agreed in January 2020,” said the Minister.
“I told the residents (in August 2020) that all schemes evolve and we have to see how it works and it has been proven that it hasn’t worked as would have been envisaged by the previous Government.
“I committed to improving it and that does come at a cost.”
He said he hopes to bring the new changes to Cabinet in the next two weeks, acknowledging the stress and angst which many families are facing.
Minister O’Brien said he wants to give families certainty so they can get their lives back on track and that up to 7,000 homes may be affected. He said he could see a role for the Housing Agency in the new scheme, which will be open-ended.
“We are going to need new legislation too because it can’t just be done by way of regulation,” said the Minister, who said he was also supporting a review of defects in apartments where there were fire regulation breaches.
