More than 3,000 applications for support are being processed under the Government’s scheme for houseowners with property damaged due to defective concrete blocks , an Oireachtas committee has been told.
Derek Rafferty, principal officer at the Department of Housing, said at the end of last year, 393 homes had been remediated under the scheme.
He told the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage on Tuesday that 1,109 homeowners had notified their relevant designated local authority of the date of commencement of their works to remediate their homes.
He said the combined total amount paid to the five designated local authorities to February 4th, 2026, was about €264 million.
READ MORE
The initial cost estimate for the grant scheme in 2021 was €2.2 billion.
The grant scheme applies to the owners of dwellings located in Clare, Donegal, Limerick, Mayo and Sligo, where their dwellings were damaged due to the use of defective concrete blocks containing excessive amounts of mica or pyrite.
Rafferty said the pace at which the scheme was operating had accelerated in particular over the past two years. He said more than €155 million had been spent in 2025, compared with just under €60 million in 2024.
He said an initial provision of €175 million had been provided to cover the scheme in 2026. He maintained this represented a significant increase and was a recognition of “the pace at which this demand-led scheme is beginning to operate and take hold in the affected counties”.
He said the Defective Concrete Block Amendment Act 2025 was signed into law just before Christmas. Its main purpose was to provide that increases in the grant scheme cap and rates from October and November 2024 could retrospectively benefit homeowners that incurred qualifying expenditure under its provisions since March 29th, 2024, he said.
“The Programme for Government commits to undertaking a review of the scheme. This refers to the fact that the legislation mandates a review the scheme within three years of the Act’s commencement (by July 2026).
“It may well be that a review takes place before then as a change in the underlying NSAI standard governing the scheme – IS465 – will also trigger a scheme review under the terms of the Act. We understand that the IS465 standard review is scheduled to conclude by the end of Q1 2026,” Rafferty said.
