The defective concrete blocks scheme has been described as ‘nothing short of torture’ after a grieving family was forced to reapply four years after starting the process.
In 2020, a husband and wife began assessing their house after it became clear it was built with defective concrete blocks.
One year later, the wife, and young mother to three children, sadly passed away.
Due to administrative requirements, the husband has had to reenter the scheme, all the while dealing with grief and the fact that the family home is crumbling around them.
“The reality is people are caught up in a bureaucratic nightmare, and trying to navigate through this process is nothing short of torture,” Deputy Joe McHugh told the Dáil yesterday.
Speaking about the family, he said the government must be understanding of personal circumstances. “In the words of the husband, ‘This is an awful weight hanging over us’,” Deputy McHugh said.
Deputy McHugh has called on the Housing Minister to make a personal intervention on the many issues with the scheme and to make it more flexible.
“There still is a disconnect in the understanding of what people are going through,” Deputy McHugh said.
“The psychological burden is too heavy for people to endure. The intergenerational trauma is affecting primary, secondary and third level students in houses with defective blocks,” he said.
“Defective blocks is an issue that won’t be going away and needs to be dealt with. Communication is poor, trust is at an all-time low, and confidence in the process is slowly ebbing away.
“Potentially we could have a good scheme where, but the feedback I’m getting is that it is not working.”
Deputy McHugh added that there is a feeling that there are stalling tactics.
It also emerged yesterday that the defective concrete block subcommittee that was due to take place today has been cancelled, with no explanation for the postponement.
Deputy McHugh said that homeowners are “compounding trauma upon trauma”.
“Yes, there will be a review, but we don’t know when that review is going to happen or how it’s going to be reviewed. It has to be done immediately. We have a scheme here that potentially can work, but at the moment it’s not.”
The matter was raised during topical questions, where Minister for State Josepha Madigan expressed her condolences to the family mentioned by Minister McHugh. Minister Madigan noted that “it is a difficult situation, notwithstanding this matter” and acknowledged that the review needs to be done as soon as possible.
