'Accelerated' scrutiny of mica bill to take place next week

Mica Action Group member Paddy Diver accused the Government of "rushing this legislation through before summer recess so we can't argue with it".

Eddie McNamee at his mica-affected home in Gleneely, Co Donegal. Picture: Niall Carson/PA

An Oireachtas committee will sit for six hours next week to scrutinise the Government's compensation scheme for owners of houses with defective blocks.

The Government approved legislation this week for a redress scheme for homes affected by mica, while two more counties – Clare and Limerick —  are to be added to the scheme as the €2.2bn projected cost of rebuilding mica-affected homes is set to rise by €500m.

Due to a delay in Government approval of the legislation, there had been ongoing concerns from property owners that there would not be adequate time for pre-legislative scrutiny of the bill if the Government wanted it to pass through the House in time for the Dáil summer recess in July.

The Oireachtas housing committee met on Wednesday to discuss the bill's pre-legislative scrutiny and have agreed that in order to scrutinise the bill without delay, they will undertake a type of "accelerated process" and will sit next Thursday with three meetings running consecutively.

One session will hear from some of the affected families from Donegal, Mayo, and Clare. The next will interview Engineers Ireland as well as the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland. The third will hear from officials from the Department of Housing.

The committee also reserves the right to write to Housing Minister Darragh O'Brien to outline any concerns that representatives might have that occur during hearings and ask him to comment on certain issues during the passing of the legislation.

Housing Minister Darragh O'Brien. Picture: Sasko Lazarov / RollingNews.ie

Sources within the committee say the "crucial thing" is that the affected families want to "get this right, and they don’t want the bill further delayed".

One TD said: "Notwithstanding that the Government has delayed the bill and hasn't allowed time for a proper full legislative scrutiny, we have agreed to do an accelerated process."

Mica Action Group member Paddy Diver called the timing of the bill a "national scandal".

What they are doing is rushing this legislation through before summer recess so we can't argue with it," he said.

It is understood that adding Clare and Limerick to Mayo and Donegal could see another 2,000 homes come under the 100% redress scheme. 

The Clare Pyrite Action Group claims the number of homes affected in Clare currently stands at more than 1,000, and could potentially be several thousand.

Defective blocks that contain high levels of mica can absorb water and cause cracking to external and internal walls, potentially causing structural failure to dwellings and posing a significant health and safety risk.

Excessive amounts of mica have been detected in the concrete blocks of more than 5,000 homes in Donegal and Mayo, causing the bricks to crumble and putting the structures at risk of collapse.