Paul Murphy demands urgent redress for apartment and duplex defects

To Discuss Apartments and Duplex Defects Thanks very much, Lasse Ciancórle. So it's now almost a year since the Government received this report of the Working Group to examine defects in housing and what is laid out in this report is quite a shocking tale of builders cutting corners through loopholes that were inserted by Fianna Fáil and Fianna Gael in terms of self-certification for builders and devastating consequences for apartment and duplex owners. It suggests that a majority of apartments and duplexes built between 1991 and 2013 are affected by defects between 50% and 80%. It's an incredible figure amounting to between 62,500 and 100,000 apartments or duplexes and affected by a range of defects but mostly fire defects. Facing an average bill to fix each apartment or duplex of 25,000 euros, I have no doubt that that figure is going to increase rather than decrease over time. Thanks to the campaigning of residents from across the country coming together in the Not Our Fault campaign, thanks to the lobbying of the Construction Defects Alliance, then at the start of this year the Government promised a 100% redress scheme including retrospection which is obviously extremely welcome. However, the devil was then and is now in the detail. I mean the Government claims to have 100% redress scheme in place for the people affected by MICA but if you talk to people affected by MICA they definitely do not agree that that's what is happening and are completely unsatisfied. So I have a number of specific questions. One is about timeframe. The whole thing seems to be happening extremely, extremely slow. So there is the leak of a report of an advisory group to develop a code of practice in the Irish Times on Monday and that suggests and it's reflected in a paper by the Construction Defects Alliance that suggests that the timeframe the Government is looking at is heads of bill developed by the end of the end of the year and hopefully a scheme in place by autumn 2024. It seems to be extraordinarily slow. We've known this issue has existed for years. We've had the details since July of last year and obviously the timeframe of autumn 2024 that slips with then we're going beyond probably the timeframe of the next general election. So a question about timeframe. Secondly, a question about retrospection. Again, hints in the Irish Times of resistance from inside the Department to retrospection, the idea that people have already paid out to fix their apartment or duplexes, that there's a resistance to the idea that that needs to be paid by the State, which it absolutely does. I think the State should then pursue the builders who are responsible. Third issue, which I think is the crucial issue is the issue of emergency funding. So at the time in January, the Minister would have spoken about the possibility of emergency funding, they were looking into it and so on. There's a reference now to interim funding funding in the report from the Irish Times. This needs to happen and it needs to happen before the end of the year. You look at the fire that happened in Blanchestown a couple of weeks ago, fires can and will happen in multi-unit developments. And if you have, and we know a majority between 1991 and 2013, if you have fire defects in place, those fires can spread extremely quickly and it will be grossly negligent by the Government not to have emergency funding in place to put in place the necessary measures, bearing in mind that a majority of people living in these places don't even know that they're affected. Fourthly, and finally, the Minister at the time spoke about speaking to the insurance companies to deal with the issue of owners management companies finding it difficult to get insurance. It is not clear if there is any progress on that. I am taking this matter on behalf of my colleague Narrow O'Brien, Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage. I wish to thank the Deputy for raising this issue and for providing us with an opportunity to update the House on this important matter. At the outset, I would like to assure the House of this Government's commitment to support homeowners and residents of many apartments and duplexes that have defects. I fully acknowledge the stress that this causes when defects arise in relation to the buildings and their homes that they live in. Since the receipt of the government approval in January of this year to draft legislation to support the recommendations of defects, the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage has been working to progress the various programmes of work that are required to place the remediation scheme on a statutory footing. I think the Deputy would appreciate by the Deputy Deputy project on this agenda and that I think the Deputy Deputy will appreciate that. That takes some time to get a scheme like this completed on a statutory footing on the homes. A key aspect of this work is developing a Code of Practice in the context of the Fire Services Act to provide guidance to relevant professionals, including guidance on interim safety measures. safety measures. The development of this code of practice was a key recommendation of the working group that Minister O'Brien established to examine defects in housing. The group working on this code includes industry professionals, local authority fire services, the housing agency and the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. The work of this group is nearing completion and the Department expect to be in a position to publish this code of practice for public consultation in the coming weeks. The code of practice will be a key feature on which operations of the statutory scheme will be based. It will support the development of a reasonable and practical approach to resolving fire safety defects and ensure a consistent approach nationwide to remediation. While the code of practice will apply to the remediation of fire safety defects, it could be built upon in regard to the remediation of structural and water ingress defects in due course. The Deputy can see the priority in terms of fire safety and then the issue of remediation of structural and water ingress defects can be looked at subsequently to dealing with the fire issue. I know the Deputy did highlight the fire in Blanchett town recently and I think everybody would accept we have to deal with that as an immediate early starter as part of this process. The scheme will be administered by the housing agency on a nationwide basis and interaction and interdependency with the local authority fire services and others will need to be considered with the remediation of fire safety defects carried out to the satisfaction of the local authority fire services. An advice and information service and portal within the housing agency is in the process of being established. In addition, work is also underway to draft the required legislation which will include the scope, eligibility and conditions of the remediation scheme. While the Department is working on the development of the scheme as a matter of priority, sufficient time is required to draft the legislation to ensure that the scheme is fit for purpose, provides value for the taxpayer's money and contains appropriate oversight and governance measures. Thank you. I appreciate that the Minister isn't Minister O'Brien. You say you know the opportunity to update the House on this important matter, but you didn't really provide that much update, apart from the fact which we know from the Irish Times, that this code of practice is being developed that was referred to previously in the Dáil. But something worrying is that it says the code of practice including guidance on interim safety measures. That would obviously be welcome, we need guidance on interim safety measures, but to make these interim safety measures happen, we need money, we need funding, because that's at the bottom line of this issue, is that people cannot afford to pay 20,000 euros or whatever to make their homes safe. None of this is these people's fault, they're not responsible for it and they don't have the money to pay for it. And so if we identify that there is a serious fire risk in our departments in terms of the threat of fire spreading rapidly, well then we have to provide funding urgently to ensure that the work is done to make it safe on an interim basis while the full scheme is rolled out. I think that is that is essential and again it will be grossly negligent of the government not to take that action given the information that it has in front of it. I didn't get an answer but maybe the Minister O'Brien will provide an answer in terms of the other issues of retrospection, of the issue of insurance and then in terms of the time frame again I just would stress the urgency on all of this. I would encourage the Minister or any member of the House to come out and meet the campaigners, and people who are living in this in these conditions and who face you know in the light of the fire in Blanchestown are thinking more about these safety issues and they're outside the Dáil every Wednesday and from one o'clock to two o'clock. Next week and the Not Our Fault campaign is planning a 24-hour protest so if people are free at any stage in the day they can go out and talk to these people and get a sense of the urgency in particular for the emergency funding or interim funding whatever you want to call it but it needs to have money involved to ensure that this work happens before the end of the year. I want to thank the Deputy for highlighting this issue and it's an important issue for allowing me again to assure the House of this Government's commitment to deal with the issue of defects in apartments and to assist homeowners who find themselves in a difficult financial position and I fully appreciate that affected homeowners want the remediation scheme to be established immediately and assure the Government shares this ambition but I did mention there will have to be legislation and hopefully that will get a good passage through the House once that's put in place. In the meantime it's important that the owner and management companies do not pause the undertaking of important life safety work for this reason. The Government has agreed that remediation works related to fire safety defects entered into or commenced from 18 January 2023 will form part of the remediation scheme subject to proper terms and conditions. The details of this process are being worked out as a priority in parallel to the Code of Practice. That is dealing with fire safety defects where work was entered into or commenced from 18 January this year. That is an element of retrospection. As the works continue, Minister Bryan looks forward to continuing engagement with key stakeholders and encourage all interested parties to participate in the public consultation on the Code of Practice when it is launched in the coming weeks, primarily in the first instance dealing with the fire safety issue. The Code of Practice will provide for a system of certification whereby fire safety recommendation works and remediation works when completed in accordance with the provisions of the Code and signed by the competent building professional and competent builder will demonstrate that the defects discovered have been satisfactorily remediated and this will be a benefit to all stakeholders and as I did mention earlier, the local authority fire certification will be required as well. I will speak directly to the Minister. You mentioned the timetable. There are some dates I am able to give you. I deal with an element of retrospection. I am sure not to everybody's satisfaction, but there is an element of retrospection in relation to work commenced since earlier this year and then the issue of funding, especially for the fireworks, I am sure that will be dealt with once this document is published and the issue of the management companies and the insurance. I will bring these to the Minister's attention later to run today. Thank you. Thank you.