Defective block scheme families struggle for help yet council staff are available for planning meetings claims councillor

How was Donegal County Council able to provide staff to deal with planning queries by phone or in person at clinics yet help for families struggling to deal with mica and defective block schemes was not available?

The question was raised at the last council meeting by Cllr Gary Doherty who called on the council to introduce support clinics or support hubs in each of its municipal districts affected by mica and defective blocks.

He pointed out that this proposal, to provide essential advice and assistance to families applying for the redress scheme, had been unanimously agreed upon at a meeting earlier this year in either January or February.

"I have also followed this up with questions at subsequent council meetings but as yet these support hubs have not been established.

"People who have defective blocks in their homes and who are trying to access the scheme are crying out for this facility to be up and running. It's a very simple ask. People desperately need to be able to drop into a clinic to get advice about how to access the scheme, what they need to do, and where they need to go from here but unfortunately at the moment this is not available."

He said he also wanted to know why members of council staff were available for planning clinics by phone or by dropping into a meeting yet this service was not being extended to people who are trying to access the defective blocks redress scheme.

"People are making life-changing decisions and I think it's a small ask of this local authority who are administering the scheme to be there and have an open line of communication to allow people to drop in and get the advice they need."

He added if his motion was supported he would like to see it implemented as soon as possible.

"We are aware of the difficulties of the scheme but notwithstanding these, I can see no reason to delay setting up these support clinics," he added.

This was seconded by Cllr Albert Doherty.

Cllr Doherty was told by the council's acting director of housing, corporate and cultural services, Patsy Lafferty said the council's defective concrete blocks team was providing feedback on the phone and facilitated one-to-one meetings where necessary.

He added in the broader context he said the appointment of facilitators had been raised at Local Community Development Committee (LCDC) level in recent months to provide other support to families

Mr Lafferty also revealed that the council has made an application to the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage on behalf of Donegal Local Development Company (DLDC) and Inishowen Development Partnership (IDP) to appoint facilitators who would support affected homeowners.

He added the department had requested further information at the end of August in relation to the roles and what was expected within the roles and they were in the process of responding to that.

"The indications are these will be favourably responded to by the department," he added.

Cllr Doherty’s motion was passed unanimously