Family left in mica redress scheme limbo

Mica Action Group stalwart Debbie McDaid will never forget 2021.

Debbie underwent a mastectomy and reconstructive surgery on April 12, followed by six rounds of chemotherapy, three weeks apart, and a follow up operation, just as Paddy Diver's 100% Redress campaign ignited Inishowen.

One of the thousands of mica-affected home owners in Donegal, Debbie, who is embarking on a course of radiotherapy on November 8, said, 'Your health is your wealth, without a doubt'.

As if that was not enough, Debbie and husband, Kevin, have found themselves in a seemingly intractable situation regarding the Donegal County Council administered Defective Concrete Blocks Grant Scheme, which is causing the couple additional and unnecessary stress.

Debbie and Kevin had received approval for Stage 2 of Option 2 of the Scheme, which consisted of outer leaf repair and underpinning.

However, as their house continued to deteriorate, their engineer subsequently changed his recommendation to Option 1, demolition and rebuild.

It was only then the couple, and many other people involved in the Scheme, discovered there was absolutely no facility for a 'change of circumstances' in the IS 465 protocol.

IS 465 includes the standardised protocol for determining whether a building has been damaged by concrete blocks containing certain excessive amounts of deleterious materials (such as mica).

As a result, Debbie cannot proceed through the Scheme, neither can she leave the Scheme and reapply. The Defective Concrete Blocks Grant Scheme is a one application scheme, which would require legislative change to facilitate Debbie and the handful of families of which she is aware who have found themselves in a similar predicament.

Speaking to Donegal Live, Debbie said if she could get her 'change of circumstances' and proceed with her engineer-recommended Option 1, it would be “One less thing to worry about” as she continues her treatment.

Debbie said: “Kevin and I built this house and we moved in the Christmas of 2005. We got married and had our reception here in 2010.

“A year afterwards, Damien McKay [engineer] was holding a meeting in Letterkenny raising concerns about cracks which were appearing in people's homes. Kevin's brother told us he had seen a house in Malin, belonging to Oliver and Veronica Lafferty, which had cracks like the ones that had appeared on our home.

“So, Kevin went off to the meeting in Letterkenny. At that stage, we just assumed it would be a patch up job, fixed, away we go. At that meeting people were asked to out their names forward for a group and Kevin suggested me and that is how I became involved with the Mica Action Group.

“It was after the freeze frost of 2010 when we first noticed the cracking. It started more on the gable wall, that's where we saw the corner areas starting to move. We just watched it deteriorate. The seriousness of the situation dawned on Kevin at that first meeting. It dawned on me after I attended a few Mica Action Group meetings and went and saw Oliver and Veronica
Lafferty's house for myself. I remember their bay window was practically falling out,” said Debbie.

Debbie and Kevin then began exploring many options in an attempt to prevent the cracks from spreading. These included painting, special coatings and re-plastering.

“We didn't do any of that because we realised it was ingrained in the blocks,” said Debbie, “and we have not painted this house, inside or outside since the day we moved into it.

“We did our core testing in preparation for the Scheme coming out. When the 90 / 10 Scheme came out [January 2020] we embraced it because there was nothing else. I assumed it was the best we were ever going to get.

“I wanted to be on the ball. My attitude was, 'Let's get this saga over and done with' because I had done 10 years of talking about mica when other people were not talking about mica.

“Our engineer, Damien McKay, recommended outer leaf repair and underpinning. You would do one wall, a metre at a time. You take out a metre, dig down, put concrete in, leave metre and then, when those two metres on either side were done, you do the metre in the middle. So, it is not a big job but it is labour intensive and time consuming. You do that around your whole
house. We would have had difficulties with the chimneys, which would have had to be taken down on the inside of the house,” said Debbie.

Debbie said she found the application process for the Defective Concrete Blocks Grant Scheme straight forward.

“There was a bit of toing and froing to get the administration of it done. You had your bank statements or whatever documents in date and then, when you got through to the next stage, they were out of date and you had to go back and supply those again. I probably chased them, that would be my personality, because I wanted to get the thing started.

“So, we went through and got approved at Stage 2. We then we went to the tender process, which lasted six weeks. We picked a contractor in February 2021 and then it all started on social media. Paddy Divers 100% Redress campaign between my diagnosis and my mastectomy on April 12. It was all within the same time frame. It was whirlwind.

“Everything happened at once in those 6 weeks. We started checking the house more and more saying have we picked the right option? We noticed the patches had started to get bigger. That's being caused by the movement of the gable wall outside, which has then allowed for a stream of water to come in.

“You can see two lines coming down, that's not a shadow, that's steel. There are similar lines on the other side and this is minor compared to an upstairs bedroom where that gable wall is moving out. Because I was around the house more, I was hearing more and seeing more. I was spending my time trying to keep in top of cleaning. I was seeing more things. We have bison slabs and the living room, hallway and kitchen have cracks down all three inside walls,” said Debbie.

Debbie asked her engineers to come out and have another look and they agreed the couple might be better looking at an Option 1.

“But, we were approved at Stage 2 and that is when we realised there was a flaw in the Scheme. No-one anticipated this. I contacted The Council and said I was looking for a 'change of circumstances' because there was deterioration of the inside. At that time nobody at the Council aired any sort of concern about such a thing.

“Between 2019 and 2021 there was a steady decline in our house. However, we discovered there is no way to change an approved option under the Scheme, which was also the understanding of our engineer. We were faced with the prospect of doing a fix that was not a fix.

“I then contacted councillors who came back to me and confirmed there was no facility for a 'change of circumstances' under the current Scheme. I had exhausted Donegal County Council's administration team. I had exhausted the councillors. So, I went to the Housing Department. I corresponded with Ray McAndrews there, who eventually told me, to put a 'change of circumstances' clause into the Scheme, would require legislative change. He also told me Donegal County Council had a number of families in this position and the Department of Housing was aware of the issue.

“I am not sure there if is enough awareness. If getting 100% redress, or accommodation costs, or increased caps in the new scheme requires legislative change, so does a 'change of circumstances'. We need this, urgently,” said Debbie.

Pearse Doherty TD (Sinn Féin) raised the matter in a Parliamentary Question to Housing Minister Darragh O'Brien: “Will changes to the defective block redress scheme permit successful applicants to submit a new application, change to another option or submit a change of circumstances when the property has deteriorated since applying for the redress scheme?”

In his reply, Minister O'Brien said: “In response to concerns being raised by homeowners in relation to the Defective Concrete Block grant scheme, I established a time-bound working group, with representatives from my Department, the local authorities and homeowner representative groups who are tasked with reviewing the operation of the scheme and providing
a report with recommendations originally by July 31.

“At the request of homeowners and in order to afford them more time to consider and respond to key issues under discussion, it was agreed at the meeting held on July 27 that the timeline for the submission of a report by the Working Group would be extended to the end of September 2021.

“While he work of the group continues it would not be appropriate for me to comment on its deliberations. Following conclusion of the deliberations of the Working Group, I will, following consultation with the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform and the Attorney General, bring proposals to Government.”

It was confirmed last week, Minister O'Brien would bring proposals to Cabinet on November 9, 2021.

According to Debbie, she is sitting in “absolute limbo”

“I can't move forward and I do not know how long legislative change will take. The only reason I am hopeful is because people on the grapevine are saying that things are going to be changed, the Scheme is going to change. I don't even know if I will run out of time with my current approval. No-one can give me a definitive answer.

“My advice to anyone is to make sure, when you get to Stage 2, the request you are submitting has been thought through. Do not be making any decisions rapidly.

“I had a lot going on and we wanted things fixed as soon as possible. People should consider whether an outer leaf is a long-term fix because the more I see and talk to people who have done things with their outer leaf, I still see problems in the inner leaf.

“I literally need [a decision maker] to change a number on an application form. It is one number. I need to change a 2 to a 1. It is a very small thing to do but it would mean I could start to move on. It would mean I could take one weight off my shoulders and allow myself and Kevin to concentrate on what is really important – health,” said Debbie McDaid.