Attorney general Rossa Fanning admitted the state mica scheme “may be of limited value” to many homeowners with semi-detached properties.
Fanning, in correspondence to then taoiseach Leo Varadkar last year, also warned of “serious consequences” for public finances if the scheme’s financial cap increased in line with inflation.
The attorney general’s advice came the day after he met with Fine Gael TD Joe McHugh to discuss the scheme, as reported yesterday by The Ditch.
Charlie McConalogue ‘less emotionally involved’ in mica issue
Attorney general Rossa Fanning met with Fine Gael Donegal TD Joe McHugh on 8 February, 2023. The meeting came after McHugh resigned the Fine Gael party whip in July 2022 over his dissatisfaction with a new government scheme for defective block homeowners.
The day after meeting with McHugh, the attorney general wrote a letter to Leo Varadkar that mixed legal advice with party political issues.
Sinn Féin TD Padraig Mac Lochlainn last year raised concerns about the semi-demolition of properties affected by mica.
The attorney general admitted in his advice that this part of the scheme could cause problems and be of little help to many affected homeowners.
“The problem is that even if that limitation is fair and reasonable on the face of it, it will cause a problem for the owner of the adjacent property who may be an eligible applicant for remediation under the scheme but in whose case, remediation may be of limited value if the adjoining property is not at all remediated at the same time,” he said.
“There are solutions such as creating a partitioning between the parties by rebuilding slightly inside the previous boundary line but none are entirely satisfactory. Deputy McHugh was of the view that Minister O'Brien and the Department of Housing were aware of this issue and that it was possible that some progress could be made on it,” wrote Fanning in his letter to Varadkar.
Fanning warned about the state’s potential financial exposure were payments under the scheme linked to inflation.
“Unfortunately, as you know, the €420,000 figure is specified in the act itself and were it to be increased, it would require legislative amendment. You will appreciate that there would be serious consequences from a public finance perspective if the size of the grant was to chase construction inflation over, say, a five year period,” Fanning wrote.
Fanning wrote that McHugh raised this issue in their meeting.
“Firstly, he (McHugh) believes that the overall cap per property of €420,000 is insufficient in circumstances where construction inflation since that figure was arrived at has significantly reduced the value of work that can be done for that amount of money,” wrote Fanning in his letter dated 9 February, 2024.
“He (McHugh) pointed out to me that with professional fees of architects and engineers, work on foundations and demolition work and associated costs of removing existing defective concrete from a demolished existing structure, €420,000 is not as much money as it initially appears,” he added.
According to Fanning, McHugh also questioned the exclusion of holiday homes from the redress scheme. The attorney general used the example of a person living in Derry with a holiday home in Donegal, an issue raised by local TD Mac Lochlainn last year.
“Deputy McHugh's second concern relates to adjacent ineligible properties in the context of semi-detached houses… If the owner is, for instance, living in Derry and using the property only as a holiday home there may in practical terms be no funds available to remediate it,” wrote Fanning.
Fanning said he told McHugh,“Minister McConologue sat beside minister O'Brien at the cabinet table and that it was likely that he was another conduit for the concerns of Donegal constituents and was passing on similar points.”
“Deputy McHugh was of the view that Minister McConologue was less emotionally or personally involved in the mica issue than he was, though he did not completely discount the validity of what I was saying to him,” wrote Fanning.
Fanning and Varadkar did not respond to requests for comment sent yesterday afternoon.
