141. Deputy Joe McHugh asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the number of houses that were demolished and rebuilt under the original defective blocks scheme; the number that were demolished and rebuilt under the new enhanced defective blocks scheme (2022) to date; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26611/24]

I commenced the Remediation of Dwellings Damaged by the Use of Defective Concrete Blocks Act 2022 (the Act) on 22 June 2023 which contains the enhanced grant scheme and adopted the related Regulations on 29 June 2023.

A total of 2,150 applications have been submitted to the Defective Concrete Blocks Grant Scheme (Enhanced and previous) since its launch in June 2020 and to date 54 applicants have completed remediation works. All of these completions have taken place under the original DCB Schemes with 16 of these applications relating to an Option 1 i.e. demolition.

In addition, work is ongoing with respect to a total of 369 applications that have commenced work under both schemes. My Department will continue to work with, and encourage, local authorities and the Housing Agency to ensure that as many homes as possible are remediated as quickly as possible to facilitate impacted families. Resources required by both local authorities and the Housing Agency are in place to enable them to carry out the respective roles as administrators and technical agents under the enhanced scheme.