The 100% Redress Party has said it received reports the Housing Agency is ‘ignoring’ the recommendations of expert engineers in relation to remediating homes affected by defective concrete.
Under a previous version of the Defective Blocks Scheme, the government required homeowners to engage the services of an engineer to assess the damage to their properties.
This meant they were required to find several thousand euros to commission a report on the condition of their homes from a panel of approved expert engineers.
However, in July 2022, the Scheme was changed to give the Housing Agency responsibility for assessing the damage to properties.
Tomas Devine, Chair of the 100% Redress Party, said the agency is now ‘ignoring’ the recommendations of some expert engineers.
“In some cases, the engineer has said that a house needs to be demolished and rebuilt, and
yet the Housing Agency is overriding this opinion, and only allowing the outer wall to be replaced,” he explained.
“We cannot understand why the government insisted on homeowners spending thousands of euros on obtaining the expert opinion of highly experienced engineers, and undergoing scientific tests on the contents of the blocks used to build their homes, only for their recommendations to be overridden.”
Ali Farren, the PRO for the party, added this is just another example of how the ‘flawed scheme’ isn’t working for homeowners.
“The science has proven that the presence of even a small amount of deleterious materials is enough to render a property unsafe,” he said.
“We are therefore calling on the Housing Agency to accept the recommendations of engineers. Many of these experts are also advising homeowners to replace their foundations, and yet the government has chosen not to include these on the scheme. We are therefore urging the Housing Agency to meet with us and the engineers as a matter of urgency.”
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