‘We own a crumbling mess’: Prime Time highlights defective blocks despair

It is two years now since Joe and Elaine Morgan were given approval to demolish their home under the defective blocks scheme.

Demolition day arrived last week with the diggers moving in on the day their daughter, Aoife, started at Mulroy College.

Joe and Elaine watched tearfully as the digger bucket fell atop their home in Ray.

“We couldn’t wait any longer,” Joe told RTÉ’s Prime Time on Tuesday night. “We didn’t feel safe.”

The Morgans are one of thousands of families across Donegal whose homes have been blighted with defective blocks.

As the demolition team worked, the sight of a bedroom wall with Aoife’s name painted on it appeared as a striking image. A family home fallen due to it having been built with defective concrete blocks.

While the Morgans were approved for demolition two years ago, the process has been rather more painful.

“Not one cent,” Joe said of the supports received so far.

The couple have spent €63,850 so far on the process, including the purchase of two mobile homes, stationed in their garden and which they now call home. They’ve reused doors and floors and skirting for clashing.

“We are still waiting on the local authority to approve our access to draw down funds,” Joe said. With winter looming, it could be next year before they make firm headway. The Morgans are also insistent that they will install new foundations. Joe said: “We aren’t about to spend maybe half-a-million on rebuilding a house on possibly damaged foundations.”

Their heartbreaking story will have resonated with so many who are in similar scenarios.

“It is very intense,” Elaine said. “I could never think about knocking it down. I can’t get my head around it. How on earth can concrete houses crumble?”

Donna McDade’s home in Newtowncunningham has been demolished and a new one is half-built.

Her family cannot afford to do any more. Building work ceased in July.

She and her husband Ian had four interim payments from the scheme, but they have borrowed around €67,000.

They have had to pay three ways: The mortgage on their demolished house; a loan for a new house; and rent for a place to live.

The rebuild was substantially funds by a Credit Union loan and a loan from Donna’s parents.

Money from the scheme included €15,000 towards went, but that money is long gone. She is still waiting to be transferred onto the new, scheme.

At The Grange in Letterkenny, Sharon Moss has two working electrical sockets. Extension leads come from each to feed the rest of her house.

The Moss home is riddled with moisture and mould.

“On a  bad day, rain hits the walls, comes through and hits the electrics and trips them,” she told Prime Time.

“The smell of the house is unreal. You can't use rooms and you can't get the mould off. We're breathing this in, and we don't know how our health is going to be.”

The mother-of-two has watched her home crumble.

“We haven’t moved out as we’re waiting on government funding,” she says.  “We've had some groundwork done that we had to get sorted ourselves, and get a mobile home to put on that. So, we are just waiting now on the next part.”

However, the groundworks installed for the mobile home are too close to the house to allow for safe demolition.

While the Moss family have cleared their mortgage, Sharon said: “We own a crumbling mess.

"I'm bringing up two boys in this house, and we shouldn't be living like this. It is 2023, and we should not be living in this house.”

The Banking and Payments Federation of Ireland told Prime Time that it is ‘committed to exploring all options with the Department of Housing.”

The Department of Housing told Prime Time it was aware of potential issues with bank lending and has in recent weeks met with the banking sector with a view to ‘developing a suitable product that would help homeowners who may experience challenges in accessing loan finance in the short-term’.

The Minister for Finance has also raised the issue with the banking sector.