Just 7 per cent of applicants to the Defective Concrete Block Scheme have had their homes remediated in the five years since the scheme opened, new records show.
Some 220 homeowners have had their remediation works completed under the scheme out of a total of 2,870 applications since it opened in June 2020, according to figures released by the Department of Housing up to the end of July 2025 show.
A further 977 applicants have been issued notices to commence work.
The Defective Concrete Block grant scheme helps homeowners to repair or rebuild their homes where significant damage has been caused by the presence of pyrite or mica in the blocks used to build it.
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These minerals cause cracks and other defects to appear in the homes that have been built with blocks from certain quarries.
The scheme was originally opened in June 2020 and covered counties Mayo and Donegal, with owners able to claim 90 per cent of a maximum rebuild cost of €247,500.
Campaigners argued this left a huge gap in funding the actual cost of rebuilding their homes.
Dr Martina Cleary, founder of the Clare Pyrite Action Group and a lecturer at the Technological University of the Shannon, says the new scheme has “a lot of problems”.
“The first problem is you need an awful lot of money to start it,” she says, giving the example of her own home outside Ennis that she has already spent €40,000 on.
“Then the grant itself is short. I have a small bungalow and the grant I got was €187,920. When you take out €30,000 for demolition and €10,000 for engineers, I have somewhere between €145,000 and €150,000 to rebuild my home,” Dr Cleary says.
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In June 2023, an enhanced scheme opened for applications with homes in Clare and Limerick now included and the rebuild cost limit pushed up to €462,000. In October 2024, Co Sligo was also added.
A total of €163 million has been paid out in grants so far, figures released by the Department of Housing in response to a parliamentary question from Sinn Féin’s Eoin Ó’Broin show.
These figures, accurate up to the end of June, show that out of the 2,796 applications to the scheme at that stage, 1,334 had met the damage threshold required to qualify for the grant. Some 54 applications were refused or withdrawn, while 27 did not meet the damage threshold.
Since applications to the enhanced scheme opened there have been 164 applications in Co Clare, 64 in Co Limerick and three in Co Sligo.
Some 11 applicants have started work in Co Clare, with none on site yet in Limerick or Sligo.
Homeowners in these counties say there are several difficulties with getting access to the enhanced scheme.
Sinn Féin housing spokesman Mr Ó Broin says the latest figures show “the Defective Concrete Block Scheme is not working for the vast majority of affected homeowners”.
Some of the issues he points to are that several properties are being refused or delayed for long periods of time before final grants are awarded.
“Government must go back to the drawing board and introduce an end-to-end scheme run by the Pyrite Resolution Board to ensure 100 per cent redress for all impacted homeowners,” he says.
Speaking of her own experience in Clare, Dr Cleary says she spoke to 14 builders and looked at every type of building method, but all quotes came in at between €230,000 and €300,000.
While there is light at the end of the tunnel for Dr Cleary, it did not come without significant stress over the last five years since realising her home was crumbling.
“It was extremely traumatic, extremely shocking to realise I was in that situation,” she says.
“I remember sitting in the house and I could actually hear the blocks cracking. I could hear the roof rafters moving when it got windy and you’re awake at night, terrified,” she says.
“It’s just like a train crash in slow motion, it consumes your life trying to fix it.
“The scheme will work for people that have at least €100,000 to €150,000 to put into a house. It will work for people who are wealthy, but it is inaccessible for people who are most at need,” Dr Cleary says.
When asked about the latest figures, the Department of Housing pointed to the fact that 220 homes had been completed and 977 had issued notices to commence work, representing 41 per cent of applications.
The department said in a statement that “2024 was the first full year of the current DCB grant scheme and it is evident from the large number of commencement notices that the scheme is now ramping up”.
