Clúid Housing, one of Ireland’s largest Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs), is calling on the Government-appointed Working Group on Defective Homes to ensure that the owners of social housing are included in any scheme for the remediation of construction defects.
The Working Group is currently developing its draft report and it’s expected that it will be published in June.
Fiona Dunkin, Housing Policy Manager at Clúid, stated, “In line with the Government ambition for ‘compact growth’, referenced in the National Planning Framework, housing associations have felt it is important to play our part in encouraging apartment living in Ireland. As a result, an increasing proportion of our homes are apartments.
“Because of this, in the last number of years, Clúid and other AHBs have spent millions in remedying defects within apartment complexes, with further expenditure anticipated. Such defects have arisen as a result of poor building standards and monitoring within the years 1991 and 2013,” Fiona Dunkin explained.
“As the safety of our residents comes first, our priority has been to remedy these defects by any means possible. However, to date, we have been forced to pay out for these defects using reserves that were intended for other purposes, including planned maintenance, community initiatives and other items essential to the creation and maintenance of successful, vibrant communities.
“This situation cannot continue indefinitely. We require an urgent solution to this from Government. We welcome the recent establishment of an Independent Working Group to examine the issue of defective housing, and request that our call for social housing to be included in any proposed remediation scheme is considered in their deliberations.
“The AHB sector, providing an essential service to Irish society by housing thousands of families in the midst of a housing crisis, needs to be included in any potential redress scheme proposed. Without such a commitment, we have serious concerns with regard to our ability to deliver on our targets, as set out in Housing for All”.
