THE sheer number of families affected by MICA was abundantly clear from the huge turnout at an information meeting in Letterkenny on Tuesday night. Around 700 people attended the meeting to get more detail and clarity on how the redress scheme, to repair their crumbling homes, will work.
Chairperson of MICA Action Group, Ann Owens said the turnout was unprecedented and illustrates the numbers affected in the county. It is estimated that 5,000 homes in Donegal have MICA.
This morning the MICA Redress Committee will meet for the first time in the County House in Lifford where officials will shed some light on the rollout of the scheme.
Cllr Martin McDermott is a member of the committee and he told the Donegal News yesterday that he will be looking for answers and will be pushing for a date to be set when the application process will open.
he said: “We will be looking for more detail on where the Council is sitting with the Department and we want to find out if the Council is in a position that they have staff there to start taking applications. We want to get a date set to begin taking applications or an expected date. We need to make the application process as simple as possible in terms of, number one, accessing it and number two, pushing it through as quickly as possible to get houses fixed.
“There are vast numbers affected out there. The redress scheme is probably the biggest single piece of work to come into this county.People are frustrated that it has taken this long to happen but they are seeing the good work being carried out by the Council and the MICA Group and we are getting close to getting the work done.”
The Inishowen councillor said the huge numbers at the meeting in the Clanree Hotel confirms something they knew all along – that there are a lot more households out there impacted by the defective blocks than initially thought.
At the meeting Damien McKay of HD McKay Consulting Engineers provided an update on how the redress process will work and the steps that homeowners must follow in getting their applications ready. The first step will be to get confirmation of eligibility from the Council. This will involve applying to the local authority by providing an engineer’s report as evidence of the damage to the property. The second stage of the scheme is grant approval. Before works commence, the homeowner must apply for grant approval, providing estimated costs to remediate their home. The Council will then confirm the maximum approved grant amount, subject to the terms of the scheme.
Stage three is payment of the grant. Following completion and certification of works, the homeowner will apply for full or partial payment of the grant approved at stage two and the grant is then paid to the homeowner. The meeting also heard from those directly impacted by MICA. Homeowner Karl Murtagh told his very emotive story about how he and his family were forced to borrow from friends and family to fix their home, which was in imminent danger of collapse, and how the bank refused to engage, eventually selling his MICA riddled home to a vulture fund.
MICA Action Group has also been involved in significant engagement with the various lenders in the county and committee member Joe Morgan spoke about how families are already seeing the positive impact of this engagement with dedicated points of contact now set up in the banks to deal with MICA enquiries. The supports available to families encountering financial difficulties through the Money Advice and Budgeting Service (MABS) was also discussed at the meeting.
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