Joe McHugh (Donegal, Fine Gael)
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117. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government to list the recommendations made by the steering group comprised of officials from the relevant local authorities, his Department, the Housing Agency, and the homeowner's liaison officer for the first six months of the defective blocks scheme; if home owner representatives, aside from the HLO, were consulted during this six months review; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24185/24]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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I commenced the Remediation of Dwellings Damaged by the Use of Defective Concrete Blocks Act 2022 (the Act) on 22 June 2023 which contains the enhanced grant scheme and adopted the related Regulations on 29 June 2023.

The enhanced grant scheme was legislated for following extensive consultation with all relevant stakeholders.

At the time of the Scheme launch, I established an Implementation Steering Group comprised of officials from the relevant Local Authorities, my Department, the Housing Agency, and the Homeowners' Liaison Officer (HLO) who have met several times over the last number of months and will keep the operation of the regulations and guidelines under review. In addition a subgroup of this group met in January and April of this year focusing on the financial aspects of the scheme and following these meetings my Department has issued updated guidance to local authorities that will enable eligible applicants have earlier access to grant funding for certain eligible works.

The Group assessed how the Scheme was operating in its first six months i.e. July to December 2023, within the legislative framework set down for it by the Oireachtas. They concluded that it is generally operating satisfactorily within these parameters. The Group made the following recommendations (see the table below.