DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING officials took over a month to put concerns in writing regarding Clare’s application to be included in a defective concrete block redress scheme.
Importance of including Clare homeowners in a redress scheme was voiced by both elected representatives and Clare County Council staff at a meeting of the local authority on Monday. It follows a heated meeting of the Clare Pyrite Action Group who echoed strong criticism of the Council.
Since September 2020, the Council’s housing section has “engaged extensively” with the Pyrite Action Group on an extension of the defective concrete block scheme, Director of Service, Anne Haugh outlined. The scheme opened for applications in Mayo and Donegal in June 2020 for dwellings damaged by the use in construction of defective concrete blocks containing excessive amounts of pyrite or mica.
On 8th October 2020, the Council issued the Secretary General of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage with a request to include the scheme to Clare and included details of a survey of potentially affected homes carried out by the Action Group.
A response from the Department followed on 23rd November outlining the need for “rigorous analysis” with a meeting to discuss the response held between the Council and Action Group on 27th November. It was agreed that the evidence “would be best demonstrated through sampling and testing of five affected properties in accordance with the IS 465 standard and if possible reflect a spread across the county,” Ms Haugh stated.
At a further meeting on 27th January 2021, the Action Group was invited to select the five properties for testing with details of a Survey Grant to be provided by the Council towards the cost of the testing. All five property owners selected the same engineer and notified the council accordingly in early February 2021.
Included in the Council’s submission to the Department of Housing on 23rd July were detailed reports with test results prepared by the engineer, a summary report on the findings, a map indicating the location of both confirmed and potential cases at the time of the submission, a request to review elements of the scheme and an appeal to extend the local property tax exemption to Clare. This submission was acknowledged by the Department on 3rd August 2021, Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien (FF) visited the county on 27th August 2021.
Detail of the Clare submission was discussed at an online meeting with Department officials on 9th November 2021. Ms Haugh recalled that “some concerns were expressed” by the Department “that the findings did not adequately demonstrate the link between the presence of pyrite in the blocks and the physical damage/cracking to the properties”. The specifics of these concerns were requested by the Council but were not issued by the Department until 6th December 2021, one month on from the meeting.
Engagement with the consultant engineer and the Council has resumed “with a view to formulating a detailed response to the correspondence and to address the issues raised by the Dept. A timeline for response is currently awaited and this will be conveyed to the members and the Clare Pyrite Action Group as soon as it is ascertained,” she added.
An update on the application had been sought by Cllr Joe Cooney (FG) who said of the Department’s one month to put their concerns in writing, “it is a pity it took so long”.
Senior Council officials met with the consultant engineer on Monday morning, Chief Executive Pat Dowling confirmed. He hoped to have a timeline in place before Christmas, “it is very important that Clare homeowners are included on any future redress scheme”.
