The Curse of Defective Concrete (Mica, Pyrrhotite, etc.) in Donegal homes - Read Mod warning Post 1

NIMAN

Furze99 wrote: »

Best solution might to plan/ build new housing estates of 'grant sized' houses on green field sites, invite all affected to apply. Then demolish all the affected buildings. That would control costs, provide housing and offer a people of choice of whether to take it up or sort themselves out within their own resources.

So you want people to relocate to a new location? And to leave detached houses, many built on family land, to move into housing estates?

Can't see that working. But maybe you're just trolling.

timmyntc

Ace2007 wrote: »

Yea fixed price or cap on max price per sqft and then even have a 0% VAT on the cost of material and builders costs - this would reduce the cost of the project of each house.

There needs to be something though to ensure the builder doesn't quote a high figure purely because the state is picking up the bill and that's where the homeowner comes in.

I agree - and many of the campaigners would too. Its a reasonable ask for redress. If, for those who have to demolish and rebuild, they could rebuild to the older spec too - it would save costs and they would be no worse off either. But current building regs dont allow it - I think for a rebuild they should really make some wiggle room for this exceptional circumstance.

At the end of the day people just want their homes fixed.

malinheader

ednwireland wrote: »

its always ? been like that you honestly didnt expect them to cover this did you

Well really I did, I honestly still don't think people who are not affected by this still don't understand the reality of how bad this situation is. This only proves to people who always had their suspicions that Donegal is considered a very insignificant county when it comes to RTE, I remember the last protest in Buncrana wasn't mentioned on six one but 7 people protesting outside the smithwicks brewery was. Then some posters on here think we make it up.

MrMusician18

Liveline might not be able to cover it because there is a risk companies or individuals could be named as wrongdoers.

MrMusician18

timmyntc wrote: »

I agree - and many of the campaigners would too. Its a reasonable ask for redress. If, for those who have to demolish and rebuild, they could rebuild to the older spec too - it would save costs and they would be no worse off either. But current building regs dont allow it - I think for a rebuild they should really make some wiggle room for this exceptional circumstance.

At the end of the day people just want their homes fixed.

The current redress scheme allows for rebuilds to old standards. It was a particular exemption written in for mica/pyrite.

The problems arise when homeowners want to deviate from the old design.

Penfailed

MrMusician18 wrote: »

Those suffering through this have my sympathy of course. Sympathy doesn't mean unlimited support though.

Your sympathy means nothing.

malinheader

MrMusician18 wrote: »

Liveline might not be able to cover it because there is a risk companies or individuals could be named as wrongdoers.

To interview the homeowners and let them describe their disastrous situation would be a start. Also plenty of times the show has topics discussed where certain names and companies cannot be mentioned. Time for making excuses for RTE have long passed.

Cee-Jay-Cee

John_Rambo wrote: »

No, Donegal has consistently had higher numbers of covid per population than Dublin.

However, welcome to the capital, the best of luck with your march, I genuinely hope you get results. Please respect the city, practice good covid hygiene & bin or take your rubbish home with you.

Really? Respect the city? What, like Dubliners who congregate to drink and fight with the Gardai? Who have decimated the city centre making it a no go zone after dark? Respect it like that?

Penfailed

MrMusician18 wrote: »

These were largely self build houses, constructed by the homeowner.

Not true. The vast majority of houses are in estates.

.

Jaysci20

What about the quarry owners who made millions from their appalling product? Are they being pursued to pay up any of the remediation works? What about insurance companies? Why must the State foot 100% of the costs while those who profited sail off into the sunset?

malinheader

Here we go again.

Cee-Jay-Cee

Jaysci20 wrote: »

What about the quarry owners who made millions from their appalling product? Are they being pursued to pay up any of the remediation works? What about insurance companies? Why must the State foot 100% of the costs while those who profited sail off into the sunset?

I agree but that’s business for another day. Home owners getting redress is priority right now. Once a proper fair scheme is up and running the government should go after cassidy’s, seize everything belonging to all of them and freeze all their ill gotten assets but like I said that’s for another day.

NIMAN

malinheader wrote: »

To interview the homeowners and let them describe their disastrous situation would be a start. Also plenty of times the show has topics discussed where certain names and companies cannot be mentioned. Time for making excuses for RTE have long passed.

Yet they tell us the truth matters.

Ace2007

Penfailed wrote: »

.

It's been reported in the Irish times, that campaigners have said differently:

...according to campaigners as many of the homes were one-off, self-build housing, with the number of “estate houses” thought to be small.

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/q-a-what-is-mica-and-why-are-people-protesting-over-it-1.4593301

NIMAN

Jaysci20 wrote: »

What about the quarry owners who made millions from their appalling product? Are they being pursued to pay up any of the remediation works? What about insurance companies? Why must the State foot 100% of the costs while those who profited sail off into the sunset?

The company concerned made 1.5mill profit in 2019.

It wouldn't cover a handful of homes, let alone 5000+

NIMAN

Ace2007 wrote: »

It's been reported in the Irish times, that campaigners have said differently:



https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/q-a-what-is-mica-and-why-are-people-protesting-over-it-1.4593301

Many many estates are affected.

But I'd still say more individual houses will make up the total though.

timmyntc

MrMusician18 wrote: »

The current redress scheme allows for rebuilds to old standards. It was a particular exemption written in for mica/pyrite.

The problems arise when homeowners want to deviate from the old design.

Source?

Anywhere I've read, rebuild requires new planning & current building regs apply.

MrMusician18

I don't get the hate for RTE here. This has gotten extensive media coverage this last week in particular and is the headline today. All coverage has been softball type with not a single hard questions put to the protestors.

trixi001

MrMusician18 wrote: »

I thought it was called The Pyrite Remediation Scheme.
I hate this playing regions off one another.

The payouts of the current scheme are estimated to be twice those of the Pyrite one per claim. The problem is the huge cost of resolving the issues. If it was a cheap as pyrite you'd get 100%. The difference is that the ask is much larger than the pyrite one, so they are not comparable.

Because there is so much money involved and the resolution is very much individual to the house (pyrite was largely estate houses so costs between houses could be compared) there is a real risk of costs going out of control. If the homeowner has no stake in controlling the cost who does?

That's why grants have to be capped and why the homeowner needs to be involved in putting their own money in.

Well the Pyrite remediation scheme only covers certain counties, which is why the people with pyrite in Mayo are protesting..

Someone is mayo, with pyrite in their home has no recourse to public funds..whereas someone in Meath or Kildare could get their house repaired and all remedial works carried out for free, and accommodation, storage costs etc paid out..

The fact that this scheme only applies to certain counties means certain counties are being favoured...it may be that the majority of the houses with pyrite fell within the counties listed in the scheme, but why should this have been included as a condition for claiming from the scheme..if your house is crumbling from pyrite riddled blocks why does it matter where it is?

And if the grants have to be capped, which I Don't really believe they should be, then at the very least the homeowners should have the flexibility within the scheme and free fast tracked planning permission approval for rebuilding a smaller house using the grants, if their own is demolished..

If the house is not being demolished and is being repaired, then no cap should apply, and there should also not be a limit to how many times you can apply for redress..if an engineer signs off that replacing the outer leaf is sufficient and 5 years down the line your inner blocks are crumbling, you should still be entitled to redress, otherwise every engineer will be recommending full rebuilds for every house as there may be a small risk of the inner blocks being damaged..

I think people against a full redress scheme should be careful what they ask for, anyone that has built or bought a new house in the last 25 years, who knows what issues could still come to light..it could be your house affected next!

MrMusician18

timmyntc wrote: »

Source?

Anywhere I've read, rebuild requires new planning & current building regs apply.

I'm not allowed to post "technical" links but I'll see if I can dig it out.

Sunny Dayz

My thoughts and support are with those protesting in the capital today and all those affected in Donegal. I was in that part of the country recently and it has some of the loveliest people and places. I can't even begin to imagine what people are going through who's homes have been affected. I hope they get whatever they need to make their homes safe again.

DrPhilG

MrMusician18 wrote: »

Liveline might not be able to cover it because there is a risk companies or individuals could be named as wrongdoers.

malinheader

MrMusician18 wrote: »

I don't get the hate for RTE here. This has gotten extensive media coverage this last week in particular and is the headline today. All coverage has been softball type with not a single hard questions put to the protestors.

I don't hate RTE. There just another local radio station in my eyes serving mainly Dublin and surrounding counties.

NIMAN

This is an issue nearly a decade old, yet you think because it's had a couple of pieces in the RTE website or the Indo over the last week that it's being well covered?

MrMusician18

NIMAN wrote: »

This is an issue nearly a decade old, yet you think because it's had a couple of pieces in the RTE website or the Indo over the last week that it's being well covered?

It's the lead story today. What more could be wanted?

reniwren

I really don't understand why there is a redress scheme at all. Surely this should be cases brought against suppliers of the blocks.

muffler

MrMusician18 wrote: »

It's the lead story today. What more could be wanted?

Indeed. Headline news on the RTE1 lunchtime news (TV) and I expect it to be the same on the 6PM news.

CIARAN_BOYLE

NIMAN wrote: »

Unfortunately the government have set a precedent with the east coast Pyrite scheme in the past. It will be hard for them to now try to tell other citizens that they aren't to be treated the same.

Why is the average demand for Pyrite in Mayo 150,000 and the average in the previous scheme (mainly on the East Coast 70,000).

I feel if we understood that we might understand why only 90% is being offered in the current redress scheme.

zom

Jaysci20 wrote: »

What about the quarry owners who made millions from their appalling product?

This is Ireland, we don't punish millionaires. Law is only for small folks.:(

jj880

MrMusician18 wrote: »

I don't get the hate for RTE here. This has gotten extensive media coverage this last week in particular and is the headline today. All coverage has been softball type with not a single hard questions put to the protestors.

They ignored the protest in buncrana. Nothing on the news. I think they put up a minimal article on rte.ie. 5000+ people involved. Even UTV covered it on TV. A few days later they had a TV news report on a protest with 7 just outside Dublin. 7 people!

You are coming across as so biased now it's boring.