Charles Ward: Appeals Email Reversed - Home in Limbo

Taoiseach, I want to raise the matter of how the state is communicating life-changing decisions to people in defective concrete scheme at the moment. My constituents applied in 2022. Her home was assessed by an IS 465 engineer from the Housing Agency's list. The conclusion was clear. Scientific and engineering principles dictated full demolition and rebuild was the only safe option to restore this unsafe home. The Housing Agency then did not accept that. It downgraded the remediation option to option 2 which retains defective material within the structure despite extremely low compression strength levels and readings clear evidence of ongoing deterioration inside the house and outside the house. She appealed that decision. That appeal took years and then on May 18th at 9 o'clock in the morning she received an email from the appeals board stating that her appeal had been upheld. The Housing Agency's decision had been annulled and option 1 demolition and rebuild was directed. That presented the outcome of her appeal and for some living in structurally unsafe homes it's an administrative it's it's a simple of being able to move on and she thought well we can move on finally we have an answer to this but but hours later she received a second email and it stated the first communication was sent in error and it did not reflect the decision of the board and it apologized for the confusion caused. Taoiseach this is not a minor administrative correction this is life-changing communication issued by the state and the body that withdrawed this decision on the same day. This person who has followed every single stage of this process compiled everything everything in the right order for years and years knowing her home has deteriorated praying and hoping that she could get through this to be left with this decision and it to be then reversed on the same day. I am not questioning the independence of the appeals panel that is definitely not the issue here. The issue is that a state administrative scheme dealing with unsafe homes and an official written communication confirmed full demolition and a rebuild outcome and the same communication was retracted hours later and that should never happen in a system dealing with people in a vulnerable situation that we're dealing with in Donegal and throughout the country. So my question is simple what safeguards are in place to ensure no other person in the scheme is ever told they have fully secured a full remediation for it to be withdrawn as an administrative error the next day because that level of failure is simply unacceptable. This is meant to be the biggest scheme in the history of the state but the failures are starting to show up day after day. Thank you for raising this issue and I've made inquiries the issue that you've raised did happen it's unacceptable from my perspective particularly given the enormity of the issue for the individual household are concerned that they should have two emails completely opposites on the one day is unacceptable and the department is immediately my understanding sorry that the chair of the board accepts that an error was made and should not have occurred is immediately instituting a change in the process whereby communications are issued to ensure it does not happen again. The Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage have asked that the chair immediately meet officials in the Department of Housing, Local Government to ensure that the process is robust and that errors of this nature do not occur again and the department itself doesn't process the appeals as you know and you're not questioning that they passed them on to the housing agency appeals board is separate to the housing agency and the department chaired by a senior council this should not have happened and it and you know particularly in the context of where to date about three and a half thousand applications have been made to the scheme good progress has been made to date with approximately 500 homes already fully remediated and approximately 750 undertaking works right now so it is a large scheme but that in itself doesn't excuse what has occurred here and I think with the authorities concerned need to focus on how decisions are communicated whether to applicants particularly where there's a question mark and where there's an appeal process underway given that this is an issue as to whether the full demolition or remediation and so whether better forms of communication other than email should be part of how things are done and you are correct in saying it's one of the biggest schemes in the state about 300 million has been already provided to assist homeowners with an average grant of approximately 350,000 so I certainly this has been communicated I think your points but well made and and everybody has to know ensure that this doesn't happen again. I want to thank you for that Taoiseach and I have another issue regarding IS 465 the revised IS 465 was due out and we were told it was April May now we're heading towards June now as we're saying this is meant to be the biggest scheme in the history of the state it has been delayed and delayed and delayed so I'm asking you now in the month of June will IS 465 the revised version be published the Taoiseach could tell me the last time that it was within weeks away now I'm asking you again some five or six weeks later can you tell me will the revised IS 465 be published in June? Well I have to defer to the Minister I'll ask the Minister to communicate with you directly in respect of that matter I'm always loathe to give specific precise timelines on behalf of other ministers but I will make sure that it because there has you know there have been commitments given in terms of this so we make sure that it gets done