Breaking: Donegal homeowners receive official confirmation they are eligible for Mica Redress Scheme

Ten homeowners have received confirmation they have passed Stage 1 of the Defective Concrete Blocks Grant scheme, according to Donegal Councillor Martin McDermott.

Speaking to Donegal Live, Cllr McDermott, who chairs Donegal County Council's Mica Redress Steering Committee, said the homeowners would now move on to Stage 2 of the process.

He added: “Today's confirmation from Donegal County Council, which is administering the Defective Concrete Blocks Grant scheme means the homeowners have passed the eligibility criteria and they will be able to get remedial work carried out to their homes. It is a big step forward for them.

“It has taken a bit of time since we started in May to get to this point. There has been a tremendous amount of work done by the Council and by engineers and by homeowners and, I suppose, over the last three or four weeks, people were getting a bit frustrated and felt they were waiting and waiting and waiting.

“However, the Council has a process to follow in terms of the Defective Concrete Blocks Grant scheme. It is quite a detailed process. It is a grant scheme and we all know that Grant schemes are not the simplest things to do. Everything has to be right.

“We are dealing with substantial amounts of money here and everything has to be right. Especially, for the homeowner. The big thing here is to protect the homeowner, as best we can, and make sure the homeowner gets the best outcome out of this,” said Cllr McDermott.

Cllr McDermott said it was important homeowners got the best outcome, whatever “remedial works have to be carried out to a house”.

He added: “That is what the Council is doing and to be fair to it, it has put in a lot of work to ensure good outcomes.

“It is great to see that we are at this point. It will be excellent for homeowners and there will be another number of applications out, probably before the end of the week and next week too and from here on in, we will be able to get some out most weeks, if the applications keep coming in.

“We will, hopefully, then in a position to get them out as quickly as possible. It did take a wee bit of time at the start to get bedded in and to get everything together. But, I think we are there now and I think it should be a lot more streamlined from here on in," said Cllr McDermott.

The funding is the first of its kind to be paid out from what is more commonly known as the Mica Redress Scheme. 

The Mica Action Group (MAG) said that after eight years of lobbying Government, “it is a significant milestone that others can expect to reach in the next weeks, months and years.”

The MAG is a group of homeowners, whose homes were produced with defective blocks containing high levels of mica, which absorbed water and caused cracking to external and internal walls, potentially causing structural failure to dwellings.

In a statement to Donegal Live, Donegal County Council confirmed that 46 applications had been received to date under the Defective Concrete Blocks Grant scheme.

The Council said: "46 applications have been received to date under the Scheme, with the majority submitted in the last few weeks.

!We can also confirm that twelve applications have obtained approval (Confirmation of Eligibility), with the remainder either under consideration or awaiting further information."