Government scheme to pay for repairs to defective Celtic Tiger-era apartments

The Government has announced a multi-billion euro scheme to repair Celtic Tiger-era apartments, after it was revealed that thousands across the country were not built to standard.

Cabinet has agreed to drafting legislation to cover the costs of the remediating apartments and duplexes with fire safety, water ingress and structural safety defects.

Between 62,500 and 100,000 apartments and duplexes built between 1991 and 2013 are thought to be defective, with fire safety being the most prevalent issue.

The scheme is estimated to be worth between 1.5 billion and 2.5 billion euro, depending on how many structures there are, with an estimated cost of 25,000 euro per apartment.

A “whole building” approach will be taken, the Government said, ensuring common areas and shared spaces are also remediated where required.

Speaking outside Government Buildings on Wednesday, Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien said that the scheme would be fully funded, and that the government was “grasping the nettle”.

“I’m pleased to tell homeowners – many of whom have been living with this issue and the stress of this issue for a number of years, some for 10 to 15 years – that government today agreed to establish a legacy defect scheme, a fully funded scheme, that will help homeowners to remediate their dwellings and to bring them back to safe places for them to live.

“This is the state stepping in, and this is this government actually grasping that nettle in dealing with this issue, and of course lessons have been learned.”

He said that of the homes affected, estimated to be between 62,500 and 100,000, around a third are in the process of being remediated or are about to be remediated. He said that those homes would be included in the scheme.

“So from the Government decision today, any work that is under way, or indeed is contracted, will be covered within the scope of this fully funded scheme.

“So there will be no one excluded from it, and there will be limitations within it but, obviously, if we’re to remediate an apartment block the full cost of that needs to be covered.”

He also said that government have approved “in principle” to include works carried out in the past under the scheme, and said he would bring forward legislation during this Dail term to underpin the scheme.

“We would expect some payments to be made this year, depending on when applications are made, I would say more next year as the scheme is fully stood up.”

When asked whether this scheme was the price to be paid for a lack of regulation under the Fianna Fail government, Mr O’Brien said that “lessons have been learned”.

“I think if we look at some of the defects that start in the early ’90s right the way through, and the regulation that was in place wasn’t sufficient.

“But fundamentally, the workmanship that was carried out, some of the materials used, the quality of the work that was undertaken, was not up to standard. We know where the responsibility for that lies.”

Mr O’Brien said that the Exchequer would bear the initial brunt of funding the scheme, under the Department of Housing.

But he added that the firms responsible for the apartment defects “do have a moral responsibility to contribute, no question of that”.

“We’re going to leave no avenue untravelled to see what can be done to pursue those that are responsible for this. Government are stepping into a market failure here, let’s be straight. We need to give people certainty that they are going to get assistance from the state.

“We’ll look at all mechanisms to seek recourse or recompense for the State in relation to the cost that the State is going to bear in relation to this scheme.”

An Independent Building Standards Regulatory Authority is going to be set up this year “to ensure that this doesn’t happen again”, he said.

The new junior minister for housing Kieran O’Donnell said that “this is about making these apartment blocks safe.”

Minister for Tourism and the Arts Catherine Martin, who has constituents in Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown affected by the defects, said she particularly welcomed the move to include past costs in the scheme.

“I hope it would be relief to them to so many homeowners who bought in good faith, and then ended up living the nightmare of not only the financial strain when it came to remedying the defects and trying to find that money, but also the emotional toll it took on these homeowners.”