Only 435 houses built with defective concrete blocks, or 13 per cent of at least 3,300 affected homes, have had remediation works finished, six years on from the first State-funded scheme to address the situation being set up.
The costs of the scheme to cover repairing the homes, which are disintegrating and damaged, has swelled from €122.3 million at the end of February 2025 to €283.1 million at the end of February this year. The costs are set to rise further as more payments are processed and because at least three new local authority areas have been added to the expanding scheme.
The defective concrete block scandal has resulted in homes built with blocks containing pyrite or mica cracking, crumbling and disintegrating while families live inside. The homes have also been affected by mould and dampness, while the damage has been linked with creating significant physical and mental health issues for residents.
In 2020, the Government first agreed to a State funded scheme, which initially only covered Donegal and Mayo. This was replaced by a new and more comprehensive scheme in 2023.
RM Block
By the end of February this year, there had been over 3,300 applications for both schemes. This included 1,644 applications for the previous scheme and 1,659 for the current scheme. More than three-quarters of the total applications came from Donegal, where the scandal of defective-block use has been the most severe.
The original State scheme for defective concrete blocks, which ran from 2020 to 2023, covered 90 per cent of remediation costs up to €420,000. The current scheme, which came into effect in June 2023 and replaced the original scheme, covers 100 per cent of remediation costs up to €462,000.
According to figures released by the Department of Housing, by the end of February this year, 1,172 of those who have applied to the scheme have had remedial works started on their home. There were 435 applicants who had seen remediation works for their home completed, under both the 2020 and 2023 schemes.
The scheme is available to affected homeowners in Counties Clare, Donegal, Limerick, Mayo and Sligo. Last week, the Department of Housing moved forward with a draft order to add parts of Meath to the scheme. This follows the Housing Agency offering evidence to the Government that some homes in parts of the county had been affected by defective concrete blocks. A similar order to extend the same scheme to parts of Fingal and Wexford was also brought forward by the Government in February.
Donegal County Council has been lobbying the Government for over four years to create a new State-funded scheme to help local authorities repair homes in their social housing stock which are also affected by defective concrete blocks. Donegal County Council believes that up to 2,000 social homes could be affected by the defective-block scandal, when social houses in estates where other properties affected by cracks are also included in calculations. The council had said the cost of such a scheme is expected to be “substantial”.
