Written answer
Defective Building Materials
1915. Deputy Rose Conway-Walsh asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage his plans to extend eligibility for the DCB grant scheme to Irish citizens living in Northern Ireland in homes built using defective concrete blocks sourced from suppliers in the south; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [59288/26]
Comment on this
1916. Deputy Rose Conway-Walsh asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage his plans to extend eligibility for the DCB grant scheme to Irish citizens resident in Northern Ireland who own a DCB impacted property in this State; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [59289/26]
Comment on this
I propose to take Questions Nos. 1915 and 1916 together.
The Remediation of Dwellings Damaged by the use of Defective Concrete Blocks Act 2022 as amended by the Act of 2025 underpins the Grant Scheme which provides grant funding to people whose homes have been affected by Defective Concrete Blocks (DCB).
A number of amendments contained in the 2025 Act came into operation on 25 February 2026 and more recently further provisions commenced on 27 May 2026.
The DCB grant scheme applies to the owners of dwellings located in counties Carlow, Clare, Donegal, parts of the administrative area of Fingal, Limerick, parts of the administrative area of Meath, Mayo, Sligo and parts of the administrative area of Wexford, where dwellings are damaged due to the use of defective concrete blocks containing excessive amounts of deleterious materials or combination of deleterious materials as may be prescribed.
Under section 9(3) of the 2022 Act, provided a person uses a relevant dwelling as their principal private residence or was the landlord of an Registered Tenancies Board (RTB) registered property as at 1 of November 2021, then that property is eligible for entry to the scheme provided all other conditions are met.
While there is provision within the 2022 Act to extend the scheme to other local authorities, there is no provision to extend beyond this to other jurisdictions and no plans in this regard.