Housing

‘Majority of homes damaged by defective blocks need to be knocked down’

Expert on concrete technology says if there are cracks in the walls ‘and at the same time you have internal sulphates discovered . . . you don’t have an option – you have to demolish’

Dr Andreas Leemann: ‘Right now the foundations have been excluded from the scheme. This is a decision that was not based on data – it was based on assumptions’

The majority of homes damaged by defective blocks will likely need to be knocked down, an international expert has warned, in a development that’s likely to swell the cost of the state’s redress scheme.

Dr Andreas Leemann, a group leader in concrete technology at a Swiss federal laboratory, visited Ireland yesterday for a discussion on new legislation to underpin the government’s defective block grant scheme, which is set to pass through the Oireachtas over the ...