Defective concrete campaigners across Donegal have written to all elected representatives in the county urging them to support calls for forthcoming revisions to the DCB Scheme cap and rates to be implemented retrospectively.
The signatories include the Mica Action Group, redress Focus Groups, 100% Redress Party councillors, Michael Gallagher and Paddy Diver, all of whom say it’s vital that early movers on the scheme are not financially penalised.
The joint statement says the SCSI recommendation of a 6% increase is now 6 months old, and was based on a review over the 12 months to March this year.
The campaigners say that effectively means that all homeowners over the last 18 month were short changed in their grant to the tune of at least 6%.
MAG Chair Lisa Hone says while the number of homeowners stuck in between the old and new proposed rates is miniscule compared to the thousands of defective concrete homes that are yet to be rebuilt, for each of these homeowners, the difference is potentially up to €42,000.
Michael Doherty says the government must not U-turn on its Early Mover policy, which allows for enhancements to be applied retrospectively, in order to ensure that people don’t hold off on necessary works in the hope of future increases.
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Release in full –
Defective Concrete Campaign Donegal
Media Release
Defective concrete campaigners across Donegal are calling for all local Councillors and TDs to support
their call for the forthcoming revisions to the DCB Scheme cap and rates revisions to be implemented
retrospectively in order that early movers on the DCB Scheme are not financially penalised.
Campaigners such as Paddy Diver, the MAG Committee, Redress Focus Groups, Michael Doherty and
100% Redress Party Councillors have grave concerns regarding the way in which the revisions to the
scheme cap and rates look likely to be implemented.
Paddy Diver explains, “It is anticipated the DCB scheme cap currently set at €420k will rise by the
maximum allowable 10% – which will probably be announced next month. It’s 3 years since the cap was
set and we have seen massive construction inflation well beyond 10% in that time. The review is based
on historic cost increases, so homeowners who had to move early have already been faced with these
costs. It’s entirely reasonable therefore that these homeowners should benefit from increases to the cap
and rates. It is currently not clear when it will be implemented and who will benefit, but apparently there
are no plans for any retrospective application of the revisions. Government have clearly stated early
movers will not be disadvantaged – but a failure to apply the revisions retrospectively will be doing the
exact opposite – penalising those who had no choice but to rebuild. This cannot be allowed to happen.”
Michael Doherty adds, “Government must not U-turn on their Early Mover policy – the precedence of
applying scheme enhancements retrospectively. This was designed by Government to ensure desperate
homeowners didn’t hold off on works in the hope of future increases to rates and caps to help lessen
financial shortfalls, tens of thousands of euros in many cases, as opposed to living in condemned homes
hoping for affordability sometime in the future.
The SCSI recommendation of a 6% increase to the sq. ft/sq. m rate is now 6 months old. This was based
on a review over the 12 month period up to March 2024. As of September 2024 this has not yet been
adopted by Govt and means that all homeowners over the last 18 month were short changed in their
grant to the tune of at least 6%. This must be addressed. All DCB homeowners that commenced their
rebuild/remediation over the last 18 months and incurred a shortfall in their sq. ft/sq. m rates, must have
the 6 month old SCSI rates retrospectively applied.”
MAG Chair Lisa Hone states, “To keep this in perspective, the number of homeowners stuck in between
the old and new proposed rates is miniscule compared to the thousands of defective concrete homes that
yet need to be rebuilt. But for each of these homeowners the difference is life changing – up to €42k
lost, €42k that takes a lifetime to save, lost because they commenced their house a few months ahead of
someone else, with no knowledge of the pending Govt U-turn and its devastating financial
consequences.
There is also growing unease that yet again we have an Attorney General becoming involved in
ministerial decisions. We know from recent reports by The Ditch that former AG Paul Gallagher went
well beyond his legal brief in his recommendations to Minister Darragh O’Brien. The legalities of these
change mechanisms have already been addressed prior to the enactment of the revised scheme in July
2022. The decisions around implementation are political, however there is a concern that the current AG
is becoming involved in how the revisions to the cap and rates should be implemented. We may have a
different AG but it appears the policy may be the same.”
Roisin Gallagher, Redress Focus Groups adds, “Here we have a relatively ‘good news’ story again being
undermined by the devil in the detail. This is incredibly disappointing as it is a repetition of negative
details which characterised the roll out of first and second DCB schemes and let down homeowners.
Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien has the opportunity to eliminate such issues ahead of the
formal announcement. So in a call of solidarity, the campaign reps have written to every Councillor and
TD in Donegal to stand shoulder to shoulder with the affected homeowners and campaigners to fight
this injustice. The letter explains the issues and asks them to respond by Thurs 12th September to
articulate their support.
To ensure affected homeowners are informed as to their position on this critical
issue the campaign groups will be publishing the elected representatives’ responses in the coming days.”
Paddy Diver makes a one final remark, “The revisions must be available to all those who have availed of
the scheme to date. If Government will not listen to this entirely reasonable ask then we may have no
alternative but to consider direct action – this such serious issue.”
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Text of letter –
Retrospective Implementation of the Forthcoming Revision of the DCB Scheme Cap & Rates
Dear Elected Representative,
We are writing to request that as an elected representative in a county ravaged by the defective concrete crisis, you stand
in solidarity with impacted homeowners by actively and publicly calling for the forthcoming revisions to the DCB Scheme
cap and rates to be implemented retrospectively to all those who have availed of the scheme to date.
The cap was set at €420k 3 years ago in 2021. The revised scheme however did not commence until 2 years later in July
2023. Over the last number of years, there has been rampant inflation in construction costs. According to the SCSI
assessment of costs relative to the DCB scheme, in the last two years alone there has been over 20% inflation.
Effectively the cap was long out of date even before the revised scheme was implemented.
The result is that ‘early movers’, in many cases those who had to rebuild due to the severe deterioration of their homes,
were financially penalised having to pay ever increasing construction costs without any reflection of such inflation in the
revision of the cap. The forthcoming revision of the cap is based on historic information i.e. the costs that ‘early movers’
have already paid/are paying.
Government must not be allowed to U-turn on their Early Mover policy – the precedence of applying scheme
enhancements retrospectively. This was designed to ensure desperate homeowners didn’t hold off on works in the hope
of future increases to rates and caps to help lessen the financial shortfall, which as you are aware runs to tens of
thousands of euros in many cases.
With regard to the sq. m rates, the SCSI recommendation of a 6% increase is now 6 months old. This was based on a
review over the 12 month period up to March 2024. As of September 2024 this has not yet been adopted by Government
and means that all homeowners over the last 18 months were short changed in their grant to the tune of at least 6% –
this must be addressed. All DCB homeowners that commenced their rebuild/remediation over the last 18 months have
therefore incurred a shortfall in their sq. ft/sq. m rates, therefore the rates revision must be retrospectively applied.
The Minister of Housing Darragh O’Brien has the opportunity to eliminate such issues ahead of the
formal announcement. We are therefore asking every Councillor and TD in Donegal to stand shoulder to shoulder with
the affected homeowners and campaigners to actively fight this injustice.
To publicly support the need for retrospective implementation of the cap and rates please respond to this letter by
emailing admin@micaactiongroup.com with the statement below by Thurs 12th September 2024 latest,
I (name) support the essential need for retrospective implementation of the revisions to the DCB scheme cap and rates
as described in the campaign letter received .
th September 2024.
To inform affected homeowners, whether their local representatives are in support of such vital measures the defective
concrete campaign groups will be publishing the responses.
We look forward to your support,
Paddy Diver – 100% Redress,
Lisa Hone – MAG Chair,
Roisin Gallagher – Redress Focus Groups,
Michael Doherty.
