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FAMILIES AFFECTED BY the use of concrete blocks with mica in their Donegal homes have criticised the State scheme set up to help them, labelling it inadequate and costly.
The Defective Block Scheme launched in January 2020, but families have said it is lacking and have questioned why they were not granted the same treatment as families affected by pyrite in the east of the country.
It emerged a number of years ago that the mineral muscovite mica was present in the concrete blocks used to build a large number of properties in Donegal. This substance impacts on the cohesion of the cement content in the block and therefore the durability of the walls.
The structural integrity of these properties can deteriorate very quickly and some were condemned, forcing the owners to move into rental accommodation while still paying off a mortgage on a house that is no longer safe to live in.
Patrick Diver from Carndonagh, Co Donegal, first discovered problems with his house three years ago. He told The Journal that he has been told that his family could live in the house for another two years, but after that it will need to be “tossed to the ground”.
“I’ve worked all my life for this house, over and back to England away from my family for weeks and weeks at a time. When the house was finished I was as happy as man could be,” he said.
Now, Diver said there are “crazy cracks” in the house he worked so hard to build for his family.
“You can put your hand through the wall from the outside. In two of the bottom rooms you just can’t heat them in the winter, they’re freezing,” he said.
Diver described the government’s scheme as a “farce” and said the people of Donegal feel they are being treated as “second-class citizens”.
“The test for pyrite for people in Leinster was €500 and the cost of the Mica test is over €5,000,” he said.
He said families who have to demolish and completely rebuild their homes have to go through a full planning process again, even if their plans are exactly the same as the original plans when the house was first built.
“The cost of the full planning application [around €1,500] is not even in the scheme, you have to pay that out of your own pocket,” he said.
The scheme offers coverage by the State of €75,000 on an outer leaf wall replacement and €275,000 on a full demolish and rebuild option.
Both of these options include VAT and a 10% contribution from each homeowner. Diver said this support is not sufficient for a total rebuild of a home and lenders will not give loans to families involved.
“Every contractor you talk to says the grant won’t go anywhere near covering the costs,” he said.
He said even the initial test, which is an upfront cost of €5,000 and is a requirement for a homeowner to be deemed eligible for the scheme, is too expensive for many families who are living in what he described as “crumbling” homes.
“There are people out there who just don’t have the money for all of this, some people are buying caravans to live in now because they’ll have nowhere to go,” he said.
There’s an older woman I know who asked for emergency accommodation because she can’t sleep at night thinking the roof is going to come down on top of her.
He said homeowners in Donegal affected by the scandal feel that there is “nobody out there to help us”.
“It’s totally and utterly horrendous,” he said.
On Wednesday evening Sinn Féin TD Pádraig Mac Lochlainn told the Dáil that the people of Donegal “whose lives have been devastated” are asking for a fully funded, 100% redress scheme, like the one families in Dublin and north Leinster availed of.
He appealed to the Taoiseach to listen to the “despair” of those homeowners.
In response, Micheál Martin said that there are thousands of homes involved and the State has committed to around €1 billion in funding between now and 2030.
He said the average cost of remedial work in the east coast pyrite remedial scheme is less than €70,000 per home and this scheme is likely to be double that.
“You’re looking at a far more substantial allocation to each home in Donegal than you would have had in the pyrite situation, so they’re not comparable,” he said.
Another affected homeowner, Eileen Doherty, told The Journal that she did not appreciate the Taoiseach’s comments.
“He said this scheme will cost far more than the pyrite one, that’s unfortunately due to ineptitude and a lack of governance that is not the fault of homeowners.
We don’t want to cost taxpayers money, but let’s be clear here we are taxpayers too. It’s not fair to say they’re not comparable, the government should have thought about that before it presided over a system that allowed this to happen.
Doherty said that while pyrite mostly impacted on the foundations of a house, in Donegal “the structural integrity of the entire house” is affected.
“The only way to be really sure it’ll be fixed is to demolish the house,” she said.
Two protests will take place in Buncrana and Letterkenny this afternoon. There is also a separate protest by families impacted by the pyrite issue in Ballina, Co Mayo today as these homeowners now come under the same scheme.
Eileen Doherty said she knows there are people who will criticise them for protesting during a pandemic, but they feel they have been left with “no choice”.
“Over the last 14 months we’ve been told to stay home and stay safe – the reality is we are not safe at home. Homes are literally falling down around people.”
The issue was also raised in the Dáil on Thursday by Sinn Féin TD Pearse Doherty, who said it was “absolutely heartbreaking” to see thousands of homeowners “watching their houses crumbling before their very eyes”.
He said this was “a problem not of their own making” and it is clear now that the scheme introduced last year is “not fit for purpose” as the difference between the grant payable and the cost of works required is beyond the reach of many families.
In some cases, he said, homeowners are faced with costs of up to €100,000.
Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications Eamon Ryan said he joined Doherty in his concern for those households and acknowledged that the issues with these homes are more extensive, “with higher costs and much greater difficulties” that those in the east of the country that had pyrite.
“I have heard from other Deputies about this problem and I commit to talking to the Minister to see about a review of the current scheme and if it is not working and not solving the problem for householders, to go back to see what sort of revision needs to be put in place to make sure it meets the needs of the householders involved,” he said.
“This has happened through no fault of their own and not through their actions in any way. We do have to address the problems.”
Our colleagues at Noteworthy want to examine how State contracts for major infrastructure projects are awarded, with a focus on companies who previously built or supplied materials that resulted in structural defects. See how you can support this project here.
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Was that worth sending me a notification? Nope.
It’s pretty big news. You don’t agree, turn off notifications.
Not surprising. Miliband is nowhere near Prime Minister material. Great night for the SNP.
Neither is david Cameron austerity lover like enda kenny
Agreed Paddy, prefer Labour over Tory but Miliband hasn’t got an ounce of leadership in him.
He isn’t as odious as Tony Blair though
If only David Miliband were leader, could have been a bit more of a contest!
Incredible result for SNP. Cameron smashed Milliband and hyped up the SNP threat in the last week. Seems to have made the difference.
Ironic that the Shinners abstaining will make a Tory government more likely.
So happy for the SNPs. Can’t believe many Irish are pro Conservative with there history. Anybody but the Tories is my own view.
You know where the nickname “Tory” comes from, right?
The word “Tory” derives from the Irish word tóraidhe; modern Irish tóraí: outlaw, robber or brigand, from the Irish word tóir, meaning “pursuit”, since outlaws were “pursued men”. It was originally used to refer to an Irish outlaw and later applied to Confederates or Royalists in arms. The term was thus originally a term of abuse, “an Irish rebel”, before being adopted as a political label.
Lots of west Brits on journal
All bark and no bite, no point having 58 seats and fcuk all power.
Great news that the Conservatives are doing so well.
Good morning Diarmuid. Remember our wee chat yest??? Ha ha ha ha told you MONKEY. We lost Bobbys seat due to sectarian politics but well get it back how’s that humble pie?
Hi Paul, celebrating an overall drop in support for your beloved shinners, including the loss of a seat? A bit unusual, though you shinners aren’t the best at maths are you?
One thing is clear, being a minority government partner in this part of the world is a death sentence….
Yes it’s an absolute joke. I never understand why the junior partner feels the brunt of the ire. Just look at this country, PDs and Greens have been wiped out with Labour looking like they will be decimated in the next election.
Do people expect the junior partner to collapse the government at any sign of conflict? What influence did the Greens half a dozen seats have against FFs 80 or so? Baffling.
The smaller parties tend to be policy based , the big parties parish pump based.
The ones with polices always get screwed.
Lib dems being 2 ideas were free college fees and PR, they got neither of those
Labours were free fees, no water charges and universal healthcare..they got none of those either
Greens were meant to all be about recycling, alternative energy and public transport – they got into govt and became about carbon taxes and light bulbs
Mainly because the policies which got them elected are drowned out by the larger party. If you go into coalition as a smaller party you have to forego a lot of your policies
The Greens got more done in government with a handful of TDs than Labour have with a bucketload. And they were supposed to be the political naifs.
I must admit, having never voted labour in my life I’m considering them for no. 1 next time based solely on their performance in government. I think people forget how right wing FG really are, and Labour’s achievements haven’t been so much their policies, it’s been their restriction of FG policies. Do you think we’d have €188 a week welfare, and no soup kitchens on o’connell st, if FG had been left to rule alone? That’s all Labour were really put there to do too if you remember the last campaign.
The Greens got more taxes slapped on us alright.
Egg Head, Labour should have pulled out months ago and forced a general election, they would have got back some creditability with average Joe. Next election Labour will be in the PD’s & Greens club and SF will dominate the left.
2 posts/updates in 16 minutes. Great LIVE blog. Not. Goodnight
You were in favour of the e voting machines, weren’t you Cathal?
This election mirrors 2016 when FG will obtain the overall majority.
#awwwyeeah
Must say, thought there was very little coverage of the elections up North. The Irish Times were about to charge me a euro to keep perusing their site. Might actually be worth it.
Have to agree fg are gonna steam roll the next election, sure there is nothing else.
Great to see SDLP/UUP make ground on the extremists SF/DUP. Shame Naomi Long didn’t hold her seat, very brave person politician.
It was that grubby little pact that did for her
DUP mask slipped during their acceptance speeches
If this prediction prevails will the UK leave Europe?
Yes
No, they’ll have a referendum in 2017. Two years of debating makes it difficult to predict which way they’d go. But it does make it much more likely.
That’s what happens when you don’t have a constitution.
Sean they have what is described as an ‘uncodified constitution’.
Will Scotland leave the UK if the UK leaves Europe? Will Northern Ireland leave the UK if Scotland leaves the UK and the UK leaves Europe? Will England leave the UK if they are left alone with the Welsh?
And if Scotland doesn’t leave the UK if the UK leaves Europe, will we re-join the UK?
I’d say it’d be pretty hard. They’d need very powerful tugboats and it would be hard to squeeze it out either above or below ireland, and the other option is over ireland and they would need a lot of helicopters for that!
Adrian, have you never carried a table through a door? Flip it on its side and bring it out through the Celtic Sea.
I’m a tad confused about the exit polls. It says that the SNP are gonna wipe the floor in Scottish parliament. Why then did Scotland vote against independence less than a year ago?
Because the Scots are all mouth and no troosers.
If Nicola Sturgeon had been running the show back then, it more than likely would have been a YES vote.
Just like the irish
Because the pro-union vote gets split between the the pan U.K. parties, while the independence vote basically all goes to the SNP. If you look at their vote by constituency, it will mostly be 40-45%. They benefit from FPTP because they have critical mass in a select number of seats. UKIP will get more votes but only a few seats.
*citation needed
First past the post. Its a bit like Ireland in 1918;0
Sinn Fein picked up 46.9% of the vote but nevertheless picked up 73% of the seats in Ireland.
The Irish Parliamentary Party picked up 21% of the seats but only won 6% of the seats.
If the British used Proportional representation, Sinn Fein would simply never have been able to set up the Dail and the history of this country would be very different.
Clearly the British havent learned their lesson. With 48% of the popular vote in Scotland, the SNP has picked up 95% of the seats there. Watching the BBC and SKY and reading the Guardian and the Telegraph, its clear that they just dont get it. Last night we watched the end of the UK unfurl in front of us.
There will also be some who like the powers that devolution brings, whilst keeping the security that the UK can offer.
If Cameron remains as PM and this referendum goes ahead it seems they will vote to leave the EU which will be a disaster for our economy. This is terrible news.
Alarmist. There is nothing to say they would pass such a referendum.
Nothing except the most recent polls undertaken by the Times and BBC
Correct. Tories might have 35% of the vote in a first past the post system. And not all of them would vote to get out.
But they might.
Sinn fein may throw away another principle in the next few months.. If they want s bigger budget for the north.. They already govern on behalf of the queen why not enter her halls in westminster?
Do they do ink cartridges over there in Westminister ?
Ohhh topical. And original too.
Keep up ink cartridges are soooo 1990′s… These days they’re all about fake invoices paid to shell companies that don’t exist.
They SHOULD abandon that policy. It served a purpose once but that day is over. They’re doing their voters a disservice
It’s a step too far for SF in entering WM. They had a split in the 80s, although minor, when they decided to end abstention in the north and in the dail with the creation of republican SF. The cessation of violence also split republicanism during the early 90s as some republicans felt that they had stopped the armed campaign without achieving anything. If they enter WM there is no about about it that they would be crown ministers, forcing another split and seriously threatening the balance of the GFA. Currently they are able to gloss over taking seats in the north as the GFA states that a united Ireland’s can be achieved so technically they have only switched tactics in achieving this. However losing 2 seats is not good.
Are you thejournal.co.uk now?
Nope but this election directly affects six of our counties and i directly affects 26 more of them.
6 of their counties. Not ours.
Really Jason. Did Ireland not exist until 1921 then? Was Padraig Pearse a brit? Michael Collins a brit? Wolfe Tone?
Sorry to break it to you, but we have 32 counties, not 26.
Jason, 1/5th of the people of Ireland live in the UK
Jason you’re a West Brit bwastard.
The UK is Ireland’s closest neighbour, (geographically, economically and socially) so only the most small-minded person would think this wasn’t relevant.
Plus, a huge number of Irish people live there. Maybe look beyond your little parochial world a little?
UKIP are failing utterly. Let’s hope nobody needs any loose bodies
But the DUP will be looking to take their place to the Tories’ right. That’s worse.
Labour would romp it if they had a leader worth his salt.
Nah, they’re hobbled by Scotland at the minute. That’s what’s killing them
Stupid first past the post system. Preferential voting would paint a different picture.
I’m beginning to lose the will to live. Cameron and his band of austerity loving millionaire cabinet ministers over there not far removed from the equivalent over here getting the reigns of power to continue to shite on the small man and woman. Are people so stupid?
Being the small man has never been that salubrious whatever the government stance! Even less when the left wing calculations come out. The British have slightly smarter “small folk” than we do. That is all
They fear what they dont know same as the irish.. We need to stand and be counted with whats going on here
On those numbers then a Conservative/DUP coalition would nearly have the numbers. Christ.
Will never happen. The Tories aren’t that crazy.
I wouldn’t be too sure about that.
I don’t know, DUP are big supporters of an EU referendum and it would be an effective response to the Scots Nats.
A DUP Northern Secretary anybody?
They may not have a choice. SNP won’t help, Plaid won’t help, UKIP on 2…
Peter Robinson will be having his white dress fitted as we speak
Nope. Conservatives + LibDems again. The LibDems will follow the PD playbook.
10 seats might not be enough though. They’ll need a 3rd party
Surprise ! It seems people are OK with austerity over there as well then
Of course. And it needs completing. The same needs to happen here!
Looks like it could be a good night for Cameron.
No surprises with the Lib Dems, UKIP, PC, the Greens or the SNP. But that Tory and Labour figure is absolutely shocking. Nobody thought that would happen.
Exit polls also predicted Independent Jocks!
Link?
The UK leaving the EU could have massive implications for our economy and business partnership’s
That exit poll is madness. It can’t be right. Tories gaining seats? SNP winning all but one in Scotland? I just can’t see that being accurate.
Remains to be seen. Last BBC exit poll in 2010 was spot on. Looks like it’ll be an interesting night.
G’wan the SNP! And to be fair, Cameron is a better statesman than Milliband
My cat is a better statesman than Miliband.
No!! No staying up if have to look at that smarmy git glorying in it all night!
If that pans out, Cameron could do a deal with the DUP, provided SF stick to their policy of taking expenses instead of seats. I doubt that’s his preference but it strengthens his hand in negotiating with the Lib Dems.
Who gives a fiddlers?
Hi Hugh with ukip on two. Do you reckon this means no seat for farage??
Just a stool in his local, one would hope.
Country is F’ked if the DUP get anywhere near a say in forming a government with the Tories
Holy crap Baz. I actually agree with you on that. Must be a full moon or something
Tories hold power. Cameron sticks to his promise of EU membership referendum. Brits decide they’re out the gap. And hopefully we follow them out shortly after. We go back to the Punt. Both us and the Brits sign an Atlantic trade agreement with the US, Canada & South Africa. Leave the EU to choke itself to death in red tape and bureaucracy, with Germany happy that the northwestern islanders have left them alone to stamp their jackboot all over the continent, while it slowly and quietly sinks into a sauerkraut flavoured quagmire. The change could start tonight.
Very efficient counting system in place over there, results expected in the next few hours.. It takes days here. could do with implementing that over here
They have a very different voting system to us. It is much faster to determine result for first past the post versus our single transferrable vote system.
It usually takes after polling to get our results. Depending on transfers some can go a bit long but also ensures the fairest result.
A day after***
Russell, do you honestly not know or understand the difference between the 2 voting systems in the UK and Ireland?
Give me our system anyday, even if some counts do take a day or so.
I agree with you completely, I wasn’t thinking of the different way we vote I was merely impressed byhow quickly they get it counted. Well worth the wait with our system
It really is some joke of a system! Everyone votes and gets rewarded with a party that 60+% of people didn’t want.
The YouGov poll posts a completely different picture
YouGov clarifies: “YouGov has not done an exit poll. A re-contact survey today simply gave us no reason to change our final numbers from yesterday.”
Interesting,. On those figures,. Conservatives can form a government with DUP support if SF don’t take their seats.
I haven’t updated the journal app because it is now asked for my location, now I will blocking the app from my notifications. (woo cyanogen mod) I had no issue when used for meaning for alerts like when people go missing or extreme weather warnings. But for the UK election results…. Really you can feck off!
How very typically Irish… Doesn’t want to hear about the UK election, oh but if it’s something important like the weather notify right away that it’s raining.
Yeah, Irish people are known the world over did not wanting push notifications about UK general elections
Moving to Scotland is looking awfully tempting now..
Enjoy your Tory government
Very interesting times and while I normally like the whole too and fro of the proportional representation this time the UK system is very interesting. . . For a change
if the dup do a deal with tories , like all smaller partys in government they will get political destroyed which would be good for sinn fein , (take that as good or bad idk)
I honestly don’t give a flying feck. Cheers for the notification spam. Get back to ‘the mainland’ with ye.
Looks like a referendum on the eu
Come on the snp
1992 again?
Go for it Cameron.
Go for it? You fcuk off to Tory land there lad will ya.
The polls were rubbish like in 2010
Scotland is a progressive nation. England is not. That was clear in November and it is clearer now. Divorce is inevitable and all power to Scotland.
Well if you go by the comments here, SSM is the touchstone. And it was done in England first.
Why would anyone go by the comments here?? Half the commenters write “should of”
Looks like Nigel’s in trouble. He did say he’d step down as leader of UKIP if he didn’t win his seat…don’t let the door hit you on the way out lad.
He made a great difference to uk politics
You pulling the late shift tonight Hugh? Commiserations I’m off to bed soon as I don’t really worry about what the UK is up to more worried about our lot of jobs worth to be honest.
Yet you care to comment. Another idiotic comment from you.
Ooh, bad news for the DUP in South Antrim and North Down.
That’s good news for people who don’t want evangelical sharia.
Look at the % each party is getting and a left-right, Scotland-England divide is very apparent
All that is needed now is for Farage to get South Thanet.
I would not go by exit polls they have shown in the past to be hit and miss with elections
Until the real results come in who has the most seats is what counts
There has always been shock results that exit polls miss
When all results are known then those who care or even are bothered to want to know the result will see who wins
20% loss of seats by Sinn Fein. That’s going to hurt the party coffers.
Ed milliband is a clown. Imagine struggling to eat a bacon sarnie! but Cameron is just as bad. His poshness irritates me! Then there’s our lot! Obama seems like a bit of a buzzer but he doesn’t do much. Putin is the only 1 who comes across as a real leader..regardless of his politics you can tell he’s in charge! If he was here he’d have no trouble telling the Germans to fcuk off!!
Do the irish elections get this much coverage in the UK? I doubt it.
No. Because we are mickey mouse and they are not.
The UK is the second/third largest economy in Europe and the fifth/sixth/seventh largest economy in the World. They are a permanent member of the UN security council and have nuclear weapons. The UK is still our largest trading partner and the Irish are one of the larger ethnic groups within the UK.
Depending on your politics you believe we merely share a land border with the UK or believe that part of our country is occupied by the UK.
Is that enough for ya?
I’m sure if we governed 6 English counties they’d be all ears
To govern six English counties we would need to invade them and hold them.
As I said we are mickey mouse and not in any position to do this?
Didn’t Jack Lynch threaten to invade the North? Well the FCA were a fearsome force at the time, ask the sheep down in the Glen
At least what it might do is let the British people realise that they don’t live in a democracy. It would appear that UKIP got more votes than the SNP and no power as a result. As for the SNP, that goes to show that Scots learned the hard way too. All those politicians on their knees to get them to vote No to Independence with promises of the sun, moon and stars next week only to break them days after the result. It would appear that the Russian system is more democratic than the UK’s. With the same old elite school products running the country then British people might have got the politicians it deserved.
So !!
Any chance of FG/Labour relinquishing their icy death grip on the throats of the natives?
When the Marxists won the Greek election the web was full Trot keyboard warriors demanding respect for the democratic mandate given to the Greek government.
Well look at the Brits now.What do you make of dem apples?
C
Well that was unexpected…
Losers and winners last night, big loss for DUP who, despite regaining a seat where they and Alliance have seen enormous job loss under their stewardship, however with a good win for the Tories they now have lost the prospective influence they were predicted to hold. If you’re on low income in Belfast East, expect things to get worse again.
OUP win, not only a seat where they had a pact with DUP but they take Antrim South from a hypocritical DUP incumbent so a good night for Mike Nesbitt.
Big, big win for SDLP in Belfast South, I honestly expected the Unionist pact to unseat him here, there again, how many employment opportunities have been created in this Irish constituency since SDLP first took the seat so one must wonder why the good Doctor retained this seat?
Fermanagh and South Tyrone not a surprising result, OUP/DUP pact have clearly done good ground work to get aging Unionist voters out to the polling stations yet it has often been said there that Gildernew worked very hard on behalf of all constituents so no reward for this from the Unionist bloc.
Belfast North, big blow to Gerry Kelly and again, great vote management from the OUP/DUP pact, I wonder does this sound a death knell for old Provies like Kelly, and the never a Provie Adams to make way for new, untainted, faces? (an aside, Mary-Lou did come across very well on BBC last night, much as it pains me to say this)
Alliance lose seat in Belfast East but overall share of vote is up, unfortunate I think, since they are still ultra Unionist party so a good result here for David Ford and, despite running Winston Churchill in Belfast South, they see a good rise in their percentage vote in this constituency.
Massive result for both Tories and SNP, after the last brit General Election I stated the winners were their labour party, as they had not taken the hammering they perhaps deserved, given poor management of that economy and other unpopular policy measures. Now the Tories go from coalition to majority, perhaps simply a reflection of the rejection of PR by the people of britain four years ago, brits, whether blue rinse or other, like strong government, not coalition. As above, the losers will be those in the middle and bottom whose tax bill will increase while potential state benefit entitlement will sharply reduce.
The Scot’s are effectively another country this morning having voted for independence, a huge win for their new leader Ms. Sturgeon, expect another referendum within this political generation, the oil’s running out so the brit’s will not want to spend their time subsidising the rebellious Scot’s, you can put submarines in the port of Derry, closer to the Atlantic.
Farage has just lost Thanet, however, in the six counties, they have done sufficiently to perhaps take seats in the Dundonald administration next time out, 1900 votes in Belfast South for a recently OUP member is quite some vote.and, across unionist constituencies the story is similar, we need be aware what message this sends out on how the six counties may vote in the forthcoming ‘in/out’ referendum which will be taken in this part of Ireland and britain.
Lib-Dems are hammered, after the rise in student fees in britain it’s hardly a surprise, I spoke to many of my children’s friends, who all were at universities in southern england, who were all anti-LibDem as their wee siblings all had higher fees to pay so, ILP like, expect no support from this portion of the electorate, or their parents, due to very broken promises.
Cameron, unlike Major ’92-’97 is unlikely to loose Deputies to other parties, or death so will probably build on this small majority next time out, is the defeat of Miliband a sign that, Michael Foot like, the brit’ s don’t like socialism and prefer the middle ground of Blairist Labour, once offered by David Miliband?
So, blue rinse Tory win, some success to the UKIP party but insufficient to have influence in their Parliament, though perhaps in the Dundonald assembly next time out, and in Wales too, which might reflect in 2017.
An excellent win for SDLP in Derry, where a very decent incumbent held his seat, while South Down might swing to Sinn Féin in five years so a poor showing for Richie there with here too a strong UKIP showing.perhaps reflects DUP disaffection where OUP increase their vote.
The big losers are the middle earners of britain who will pay substantially more in taxes, as we do too here in Ireland, while the rebellious scot’s are now the real party of opposition in the british parliament.
have your say