Mica

State wades in amid fresh row over ‘double standards’ in €3bn mica scheme

Donegal homeowners renew calls for increased funding to allow them to restore their homes to modern standards after learning social houses in the county will be fitted with modern insulation and heating

A mica-damaged home outside Newtown Cunningham in Co Donegal. The Department of Housing has insisted that the redress scheme terms for private homes and social housing are ‘exactly the same’. Picture: Joe Dunne

Local authorities will have to find the money themselves if they want to rebuild mica-damaged social housing to modern building standards, the government has insisted, in a fresh row over the €3 billion redress scheme for homes impacted by defective blocks.

Donegal homeowners have hit out at the fact that social houses in the county will be fitted with modern insulation and heating, while the government’s grant scheme only gives them enough money to restore their houses to pre-2007 building standards.