Minister set to brief leaders on new mica proposals

HOUSING Minister Darragh O’Brien is to brief Coalition leaders on the revised mica redress scheme this week.

The Irish Daily Mail understands that the minister will brief Taoiseach Micheál Martin, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar and Green Party leader Eamon Ryan on the details of the revised package which will support families affected by the mica crisis.

It will update the current scheme, which provides 90% redress for those whose homes are crumbling in the west and northwest.

Campaigners living in homes with defective blocks in Donegal and Mayo have been calling for a 100% redress campaign for affected homes.

However, there has been ongoing uncertainty about whether the full costs would be met as the number of affected homes continues to grow.

A working group has said the cost of such a scheme could top €3billion.

There are now fresh fears that homes in counties such as Clare, Limerick, Sligo and Tipperary could also be affected. A spokesman for Minister O’Brien

Working group said cost of the scheme could top €3bn

told the Mail: ‘The minister has engaged with the Attorney General on the issues involved.

‘Work is ongoing in relation to drafting a memo for Government and the minister will now brief the three party leaders this week on the remediation options for homeowners.’

The revelation comes just weeks after furious mica homeowners brought Dublin to a standstill with a 20,000-person march.

Proposals published by the Department of Housing proposed offering homeowners 100% redress in all cases except demolition.

However, mica activists said that they believed up to a quarter of homes affected by mica in Donegal will need to be completely knocked.

The department’s 30-page paper suggested that if the scheme was changed to 100% redress for all affected homes in Donegal and Mayo, the cost would rise from €1.4billion to €3.2billion.

The report suggests that around 6,600 homes in Donegal and Mayo alone may need some sort of remediation work.

Homeowners who formed part of the mica working group told the Mail they would not sign off on the proposal, which officials said was not final.