Redress campaigners blast Housing Minister

ONE month on from an in-person meeting with Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien, local owners of Celtic Tiger-era apartments with defects are angry.

They say the very serious matter is not getting ‘the urgency it deserves’ from the Minister and they feel let down.

On February 22, Sam and Odette Doran from ‘Not Our Fault Campaign’, who own an apartment with defects in Park West, met with Minister O’Brien in his office in Leinster House.

The meeting took place following the announcement in January by Minister O’Brien that there would be 100% redress for owners of apartments with defects.

He also said at the time that there would be emergency funding and interim measures in place until the scheme is up and running.

“We asked about emergency funding and the Minister said ‘yes there was emergency funds available’ then we asked where do we obtain these emergency funds?” Odette Doran told Southside People.

“He said if we commence the works ourselves then all certified works will be reimbursed to us.

“As we explained to the Minister, to his surprise, that management companies cannot get finance as the common areas in the buildings don’t belong to the owners as they are on a long-term lease.

Pictured at their meeting in Leinster House on February 22 are Park West apartment owners Odette and Sam Doran and Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien.

“He then again informed us that yes there is funds there but the mechanism is not in place yet to disperse the funds to the OMCs. “He also said he didn’t want works that were already underway or works that were about to commence to stall or wait on the scheme to kick in.

“The week after the meeting with the Minister we had a webinar with him and the Apartment Owners’ Network and the Construction Defects Alliance.

“It was a total waste of time as they said that they had sifted through 100 questions that were asked and they were going to try and answer as many as they could there was 660 people on the webinar.

“Again, we got no definitive answer from the Minister regarding emergency funding.

“He said he would like to have some sort of emergency funding that he could dispatch to people that have emergency problems and don’t have the funding.

“He said he didn’t want to go down the road of low interest loans as it would be messy and it was all going to take time.

“Overall, the webinar was of no addition to us.

“The outcome of the meeting was all about taking time and we don’t have time.

“Minister O’Brien said he was looking to have a website up and running at the end of April but just to be clear this won’t be for people to apply to join the scheme, its just for them to register what their problems are.

“To be honest, I can’t wait for an election next year as I will have a totally different outlook and I’d say the other 100,000 affected homes will too.

“We now know exactly how the Mica and the Pyrite people feel totally let down by this government.”

Sam and Odette tell Southside People that they and their fellow apartment owners managed to secure insurance on their building last week but had to go to the English market to obtain it.

“It’s not ideal but it was the only alternative available to us,” Sam Doran says.

“It worked out twice our normal premium at €76,000 and the excess on it is €7.5 million, a very high excess on it but the only thing is that it complied with our legal obligation to have insurance in place on our building.

“A lot of owners were relieved that we had got some sort of insurance in place through no assistance from the Minister or from anyone from his Department.

“He is still looking into it as far as we know.

“This week the Minister is starting to call it a ‘hardship fund’, he is moving away from ‘emergency funding’ because there is none available.

“The real hardship that is being caused is by him and his department failing to put a system in place.

“Years and years of talking and still talking to be done.

“What a joke!

“We will be back protesting again after Paddy’s Weekend and every week after that with the ‘Not Our Fault’ campaign until the Minister makes emergency funding available to us all.”

In response to a request for an update from the Department of Housing, a spokesperson told us:

“Minister O’Brien fully acknowledges the difficulties that homeowners and residents of many apartments and duplexes are facing, and the stress that is caused when defects arise in relation to their buildings.

“Minister O’Brien has listened to calls from homeowner representative bodies and remediation costs already incurred or levied will be covered under the scheme once such costs fall within the scope and defined parameters of the scheme.

“The details and mechanics of this will be worked out as the legislation is drafted.

“Work is now underway to draft the required legislation which will include the scope, eligibility and conditions of the remediation scheme which will become operational following implementation of the required legislation.

“It is intended a scheme would be in place in 2024.”