Mica homeowners demand 100 per cent redress

Readers of Selfbuild will be familiar with the defective concrete blocks scandal first identified in 2013.

A 2017 government report highlighted that 5,000 homes in counties Donegal and Mayo had been built using blocks contaminated with mica or pyrite, making them structurally unsound. Since then, more cases have emerged, not just in Donegal and Mayo but also in Clare.

Protests in Dublin have grabbed the headlines recently with mica affected homeowners asking for a 100 per cent redress scheme; the grant for repairs had been capped at 90 per cent by the government in 2019. Some, (if not all, according to some engineers), homes will have to be knocked down and entirely rebuilt.

The Minister was reported as saying the government could explore recouping costs from builders and designers.  The report is expected back on the 31st of July.

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Written by Astrid Madsen

Astrid Madsen is the editor of the SelfBuild magazine. She previously held the same role in an Irish trade publication, before that she worked at the National Standards Authority of Ireland. She graduated with a BA in Urban Studies from Columbia University in New York and holds an MBA from the Instituto de Estudios Bursatiles in Madrid. France of origin, she now lives in Portarlington, County Laois, where she's taken on the task of renovating a listed building! Email astrid.madsen@selfbuild.ie

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