Redress Scheme "not being rolled out efficiently enough"

Donegal County Council's Defective Concrete Blocks Scheme (Mica Redress Scheme) is “not being rolled out efficiently enough” according to the Mica Action Group.

Addressing last Thursday's emergency meeting of Donegal County Council's Mica Redress Committee, Michael Doherty who is the group's PRO said: “The scheme is not being rolled out efficiently enough, simple as that and they [mica-affected homeowners] have been signed up to a lifetime of debt.”

Mr Doherty said he had attended the meeting in order to hear what “Donegal County Council's Executive had to say about the situation.”

Mr Doherty said: “There has been a massive groundswell of frustration [regarding the mica issue] which has gone onto the streets. This has not been organised through the Mica Action Group, this is people coming onto the streets themselves.

“They made contact with me last night [Wednesday] because they do want some level of partnership. They still see the need for that more strategic voice from ourselves.

“However, that groundswell of support is getting nothing other than bigger. This is not going away and we need to really get our finger out and get on with stuff here.

“There are four key things that need to be addressed, which have not been addressed, what we in the Mica Action Group describe as the Big Four.

“At the minute the Mica Redress Scheme is a 90 / 10 scheme. Of course we would love a 100% scheme but if that means waiting another 10 years waiting, then we would take a proper 90 / 10 Scheme.”

Mr Doherty described a 90/10 scheme as a “whole house project”.

He said: “Forget about all of the caps and everything else. If it is a €300,000 project, then the maximum that homeowner should be out is €30,000. I think people could work with that but what was concocted made sure the Government was going to be protected.

“They put exclusions in there. They put caps in there to make sure the 90 / 10 was never going to be. Shame on them for that. If it was the case that they didn't realise what was going to happen, they have a chance now to rectify it.

“If that is what they thought was good enough for Donegal homeowners, then shame on them. The 90 / 10 scheme needs to be a proper 90 / 10.

“A repaired home, bearing in mind we have waited 10 years for the Scheme, needs to be something which excludes one particular clause.

“There is a clause in the scheme, which everyone is missing, and that is the 'one home, one owner' clause.

“That means, if we change an outer leaf and we have problems later on in the inner leaf, or the rest of the partition walls in the house, we can't even apply for the scheme a second time around.

“If confidence is high enough, what we are doing is right, and the repair is the appropriate course of action, then there should be no need to stick such a clause in there, to say, there is no second bite of the cherry if it should fail.

“No-one has a crystal ball that tells us whether it is going to fail, so that clause needs to be removed.”
Mr Doherty also highlighted the problems mica-affected homeowners were experiencing with financial institutions.
He said: “We see the banks as benefactors, however, they have done nothing so far to help the cause. That is not good enough.

“It is not good enough for local branches to be left carrying this can. They don't have the power. It needs to be central. Paschal Donohoe, the Minister for Finance, needs to be in the middle of that.

“The matter of 'excluded homes' also needs to be addressed. The 'excluded homes' are the likes of our holiday home owners, who also spent hard-earned cash to buy their homes. They are not even eligible to apply to the scheme.

“There are also the small time landlords, these are not multi-national landlords, these are people who, during the Celtic Tiger, saved up a few bob to put something towards an investment, as a pension fund for themselves, in the form of, maybe, buying a house in an estate they were living in.

“They again saw that investment turning into a liability because of the Mica Redress Scheme. They are left out as well.

“If we are being told there is a possibility of going for 100% grant scheme, absolutely we will take it, but not if it is 10 years down the road. The four actions we have laid out there are the four actions that are sitting in front of Darragh O'Brien [Minister for Housing].”

Mr O'Doherty said the Mica Action Group had worked with Cllr Martin McDermott, who chairs Donegal County Council's Mica Redress Committee, to put the proposal together.

Mr Doherty added: “We have put the costings together. It shows the house sizes of the 43 houses that came through [Donegal County Council's Defective Concrete Blocks Scheme] recently.

“Darragh O'Brien was of the belief that 2000 sq foot was an average house. That is not the case.

“What we see is actually, less than a fifth of the houses through the scheme so far, that have been earmarked for demolition and rebuild are 2,000 square foot. Less than a fifth.

“So four fifths of our people are paying the full going rate, that is another €13,000 to €14,000 for every 100 square foot, over and above the 2,000 square foot.

“Absolutely this is not acceptable or legal and there is a groundswell of protest now that people are starting to see the reality.

“We in the Mica Action Group have been talking about this for a long time. It is only now, when people are starting to come to the Scheme and see what is in front of them, they are saying, ' This is not not good enough'. And they are venting their anger right now, at Cassidy's because that was the source of the problem.

“But they also see is the Scheme is not being rolled out efficiently enough, simple as that and what they have been signed up to is a lifetime of debt.”

“It is the second time around for mica-affected homeowners,” said Michael Doherty. “The are in the process of paying off their first mortgages and they are now looking at a second mortgage.

“It is not going to float. We need to act. The current Mica Redress Scheme is not going to work.”