Mick Clifford: Time to put some fire under the Government 

Homeowner group gathered outside Leinster House on Wednesday to put pressure on the housing minister to pay the tab on defects bill for affected homes 

Lorraine Carew protesting outside Leinster House on Wednesday: ‘We were promised full redress and we’re told the money is there but they just haven’t moved along the process.’ Picture: Gareth Chaney

Lorraine Carew was outside Leinster House on Wednesday. She travelled from Shannon, Co Clare, for the day — not, she said, to protest, but to hurry along a promise already made.

Ms Carew is among the estimated 100,000 homeowners who were sold a pup.

Fully believing that the State was regulating the construction of homes, she bought an apartment in the Brú na Sionna estate in 2017.

Within 10 months of closing the deal, she was asked to attend a meeting about the discovery of major fire safety defects in the development.

Since, her life has been freighted with worry, over the safety of the home she shares with her husband, over the possibility that the development’s management company will sue her because she hasn’t stumped up to fix the defects.

She doesn’t have the €28,000 she is told she must pay.

In any event, the Government has committed to paying it for her, but there is no sign whatsoever of that happening despite repeated reassurances that all this is being taken care of.

“The minister committed to us last January that the money would be there but we have seen no real progress,” she said.

“We were promised full redress and we’re told the money is there but they just haven’t moved along the process.”

These things take time, but the plight of apartment owners affected by fire safety defects has now been going on for up to a decade and they are being told that it might be another decade before it is fully resolved.

Ms Carew is among the cohort for whom more immediate action was promised.

Last year, Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien established a redress scheme that is expected to oversee a budget of around €2.5bn.

It’s going to be a long haul, but there are some who need immediate assistance.

For those who have already paid out to have their homes remediated the minister has promised retrospective compensation.

Others whose homes are deemed unsafe have received assurances that emergency measures will be put in place.

So far, there has been little sign of advancing these issues.

Ms Carew and her fellow owners in the Not Our Fault group believe that without constant pressure on the Government, their case will be put on the back burner.

History and the general approach to governance suggest that their analysis is spot on.

Mr O’Brien has engaged with the various groups that have grown up out of the issue.

Recently he took part in a webinar attended by around 400 owners.

He accepted that there was urgency with some parts of the scheme.

“About a third of apartments and duplexes with fire safety defects and water ingress we estimate have been remediated and I can assure [you] that the relevant costs will be covered if they have paid out already.”

Mr O’Brien also accepted that the interim measures would be required to make some homes safe.

“Short-term work is important and we want to see what type of work can be done,” he told the owners.

“It will ensure we can move forward and finance the interim measures to ensure that homes will be safe.

“We are working through this.

“We still aim to have this open in the autumn, the end of October, beginning of November.

“There are complexities but we have to work through the process.”

To be fair to Mr O’Brien, he has engaged in the issue to a greater extent than any of his predecessors.

However, action to reinforce the words is still required.

While things should be moving on these short-term measures, and the legislation to put the redress scheme on a statutory footing is being prepared, there are mounting problems around how long homeowners will have to wait.

As with other elements of housing right now, the money will be there but there are issues around capacity.

Society of Chartered Surveyors of Ireland vice president Kevin Hollingworth has been involved in assessing defects for over a decade now.

“There is an issue with personnel in terms of appropriately qualified and experienced professionals and contractors,” he said.

“That’s why it’s going to be a 10-year problem and when you consider this is coming on top of the industry, in general, trying to build a lot more houses. This will not be fixed in a year or two.”

Another issue that is impacting this area is professional indemnity insurance for construction professionals working in fire safety.

Since the Grenfell Tower fire in London in 2017, premiums for fire safety professionals have gone through the roof. Much of this is attributable to construction issues around cladding, which is largely a British problem, and does not arise on this island.

However, the insurance sector for this country is largely governed by British companies and no distinction is made for Irish engineers, architects, and surveyors seeking cover.

Companies and brokers are now shying away from offering that cover.

One letter sent by a broker to a fire safety engineer recently, and seen by the Irish Examiner, points out: “Since about 2018 it has been extremely difficult to place PI insurance for fire safety engineers.

“Even non-fire safety engineers, architects, and construction professionals have also lost the ability for the most part to procure this type of cover.

“[Company name] has approached the only other market we have for placing PI cover for engineers that your existing broker has not already approached. That was NBS and advised below they have unfortunately declined to quote. At this time there is nothing further we can do to assist you in procuring professional indemnity insurance.”

This presents problems right across the construction industry, particularly to the redress scheme as fire safety, along with water ingress, is the principal area of defects.

It remains to be seen whether the situation will improve with indemnity insurance but as of now it is adding to the expected length of time it will take for full redress to be effected.

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In February 2015, this newspaper reported on fire safety defects in the Longboat Quay development in Dublin’s docklands.

This was the first sign that defects that led to the evacuation of Priory Hall in 2011 were not an isolated case.

At the time, the general line coming from the construction industry was that Priory Hall was attributable to a rogue developer, former hunger striker Tom McFeeley. It couldn’t happen again. And then it did in Longboat Quay. And dominos began to tumble.

Over eight years and nearly 100,000 apartments down the line, things are still moving at a snail’s pace. The homeowners who placed their trust in the State deserve more than that.