Mica homeowners downgraded on say-so of state-appointed company with ties to state mica board chair

Mica homeowners have had redress applications downgraded to cheaper options on the recommendation of a state-appointed company linked to the chair of the state’s mica expert group. 

Paul Forde chairs the state’s Expert Group on the Enhanced Defective Concrete Blocks Grant Scheme and has been central to the state’s mica scheme – which seeks to steer applicants away from demolition and rebuilds.

“In Donegal… it is hoped that rebuilding would be the exception and that the other remedial options would more likely to be applicable,” wrote attorney general Paul Gallagher in his advice to Darragh O’Brien, adding, “Obviously that is a technical matter and I assume the expert report of Paul Forde, which has been commissioned, will throw further light on that critical issue.” 

DBFL Consulting Engineers – which according to one biography still counts Forde as a “consultant” – has ruled at least three Donegal homeowners shouldn’t avail of rebuilds. 

Forde’s current involvement with DBFL remains unclear. He sold his shareholding back to the company for a €3 million cash payment in May 2023, according to documents filed with the CRO. On his Linkedin account, which he has used to leave comments in the past two months, he still claims to be a DBFL director and its chairman. 

‘It is likely that the cost of this option will not differ by very much’

In January this year the Department of Housing published a tender seeking engineering companies to carry out work concerning the state’s mica scheme. 

“The project involves the assessment of 31 existing applicants’ completed engineer’s reports,” reads the tender, meaning the successful company was to review reports submitted by mica-affected homeowners and decide which remediation option would be most suitable. 

The engineer would “recommend the appropriate remediation option, or combination of remediation options to remedy the damage,” reads the tender. 

In April 2024 DBFL Consulting Engineers published a report on a mica-affected home. 

DBFL’s report was carried out “in line with the terms set out in the ‘Description of Services’ dated January 2024 prepared by The Housing Agency”. 

DBFL’s report was a desk study, meaning it was based on already collected information, including an engineer’s report commissioned by the homeowner. 

Carr and Company Civil Engineers had carried out this report and had concluded the home should be abolished and rebuilt. This option, according to the engineers, wouldn’t cost much more than other available options.  

“Even though option one,” which refers to demolishing and rebuilding the home, “is the most disruptive and expensive remediation option under the scheme, it is likely that the cost of this option will not differ by very much from the cost of other remediation options such as hybrids of option two, that involve the retention of a portion of the internal masonry, in this instance,” reads Carr and Company’s report. 

DBFL however, having reviewed Carr and Company’s work, decided a rebuild wasn’t necessary. According to DBFL the homeowner shouldn’t avail of this option but should rather be downgraded to a less costly option. 

“It is our opinion based on the information contained within” Carr and Company’s report “that the recommended appropriate remediation option is… demolition and rebuilding of the external rising walls and the outer leaf only,” reads DBFL’s report. 

‘High susceptibility to deterioration’

DBFL published a report with similar findings on another Letterkenny home in May 2024. 

This homeowner had also submitted an engineer’s report, this time using Thomas Campbell Consulting Engineers, which published an extensive report on the home. 

According to this report both the outer and inner walls of the house showed a “high susceptibility to deterioration” while a chemical test carried out concluded the structure was at a “high risk” of deterioration. 

“The concrete block is classified as high risk,” said the report, which recommended a demolition and rebuild. 

DBFL again based its report on the earlier engineer’s report and again disagreed with its findings. DBFL recommended a cheaper remediation option: “demolition and rebuilding of the external rising walls and the outer leaf only”.

In a third case, also in Letterkenny, DBFL did the same thing. 

This homeowner’s engineer’s report, conducted by civil engineer Charmaine Kee, recommended a demolition and rebuild. This, according to the report, was the “minimum” required. 

“The minimum remedial works required is option one,” referring to a rebuild, reads the report, which also considered the house at risk of further damage. 

“Remedial works are required to provide a long-term solution to successfully overcome the deficient durability of the concrete block built walls as these are at risk to further deterioration at this relevant dwelling,” it reads. 

DBFL’s report however said the risk was “medium” and downgraded the remedial works to demolishing and rebuilding the external walls. 

Housing minister Darragh O’Brien in September 2023 appointed Forde as chair of the newly formed CIRI Admissions and Registration Board (CARB), which oversees the registration of builders in Ireland. Forde is paid almost €900 for each of the ten annual half-day CARB board meetings he attends.

According to his CARB biography Forde is a “consultant (with) DBFL Consulting Engineers Ltd” but “retired” from the company “on 1 September 2023”. 

He claimed to be a director of DBFL in a late June 2023 letter to the Oireachtas housing committee despite a CRO filing declaring he resigned as a company officer a month earlier. 

Forde’s close involvement in formulating the government’s enhanced defective blocks scheme was reflected in the Attorney General’s September 2021 advice to the housing minister published by The Ditch last week. 

“The issue of obtaining compensation from third party wrongdoers must be fully addressed, even if, as is believed by the department, a meaningful recovery will be difficult to obtain. I understand Paul Forde will express some high level views on the technical issues which might give rise to liability on the part of different wrongdoers,” he added.

The Department of Housing, DBFL and Forde all declined to comment.