Building Contractors air mica concerns

A well-attended meeting in Burt's An Grianán Hotel heard the numerous concerns of building contractors currently involved or considering involvement in repairing or rebuilding mica-affected homes.

The meeting was chaired by Paddy Diver of the 100% Mica Redress campaign. The speakers were Cathaoirleach of Donegal County Council, Cllr Jack Murray, Cllr Martin McDermott and Cllr Albert Doherty, Chairperson and Vice Chairperson respectively of Donegal County Council's Mica Redress Committee.

Among the key issues aired by the building contractors was the clause in the Defective Concrete Blocks Grant Scheme, which allowed Donegal County Council to retain 25% of the grant, for up to a year, when the building contractor has finished a project involving a private property.

A number of contractors pointed out that, in the case of a public contract, such as a Housing Adaptation Grant for people with a disability, the retention figure was usually 5%. It was felt, if the 25% retention figure remained, it would militate against contractors taking on private projects. Contractors would be more inclined to undertake public contracts to remediate Donegal County Council's mica-affected social housing stock, rather than private homes.

However, the repair or rebuilding of social houses would involve bundling several properties together, also concerned some of those present at the meeting, as it would rule out smaller contractors.

“Stressful and unacceptably long” delays in the payment of invoices submitted to Donegal County Council for payment from the Defective Concrete Blocks Grant Scheme was also cited at the meeting, with building contractors being forced to finance the projects themselves via credit and bank loans.

The issue of Defective Concrete Blocks Grant Scheme payments being made to homeowners, rather than directly to the building contractor, also led to a discussion of the possibility of a contractor not getting fully paid for completing work on a private home.

One speaker predicted the inevitability of a contractor getting “burned” because a homeowner might not pass on the final instalment of the grant.

Cllr Murray, described the meeting as “useful, honest and frank”.

He said: “It was very worthwhile because the negotiations of the Working Group on the Defective Concrete Blocks Scheme are coming to an end very soon, so these concerns need to be aired now.

“Councillors need to know about them, so we can fight to have them included in the new [Mica Redress] scheme.

“The first thing I am going to do now as Cathaoirleach is to speak to the Chief Executive of the Council and ask for a meeting with Cllr Albert Doherty and Cllr Martin McDermott, where we can bring forward the concerns raised tonight in their totality, and ask that it is ensured Donegal County Council's representative in the Working Group's negotiations bring them forward in that forum.

“As well as that, I think we should put a written submission ourselves as councillors directly to the negotiating team and make sure it is brought up. We cannot be talking about these issues after the fact.

“We need to address the retention figure of 25% and streamlining the process, including the timely payment of invoices. We need parity with the works that are going to be done on social houses.”

Cllr McDermott said it was important building contractors had their say because that was the stage the Defective Concrete Blocks Grant Scheme was reaching.

He said: “There have been so many steps in this process. It was a new scheme and we are only starting to identify the issues as the we go through the steps.

“We are now at the step when contractors have to get paid and we see there are issues arising, the 25% retention figure and building contractors waiting on payment.

“Now is the time for us to take those issues back to the Council, but, to be fair, it is not the Council which is going to change this, it is the Department of Housing.

“It is very important to get that out there because, sometimes people think the Council can just decide tomorrow morning just to change that 25% retention figure to 5%. It cannot.

“We have a meeting this week [Donegal Council Council's Mica Redress Committee]. We will bring the concerns heard at tonight's meeting forward to the Council representative on the Working Group, whoever that official is going to be.

“It probably will not be Joe Peoples, who is retiring from Donegal County Council this week. That representative will take the issues up with the Department of Housing.

“We will also do is we will send a letter from our Mica Redress Committee to the officials that are dealing with the scheme and the Minister, to tell them that those issues, identified at this point, just don't work and what we need to do.”

Cllr Doherty said it was very important for the Mica Redress Committee members of Donegal County Council and the Cathaoirleach to hear the impediments that the many, contractors had with the existing scheme.

He added: “It was useful to hear their recommendations for what changes need to be included in any amended Scheme and also to give them reassurance that there is assistance at county level.

“While the county is still administering this Scheme, we have got to listen to the private householders and to the contractors on the ground.

“Likewise, we have a significant number of tenants as well. The Mica Redress Committee needs to have an input into the Working Group talks from a Donegal County Council perspective, through its representative.”