About the CDA | Construction Defects Alliance

Safe As Houses? Report

The issue of defects in apartment blocks and duplexes very much came into the public eye with the problems in Priory Hall in the early 2000s. As more and more defective developments came to light, the Oireachtas Housing Committee started to examine the issue in some detail in 2017.

Out of this process, the Safe As Houses? report emerged. It was completed in December 2017 and was published in January 2018 setting out clear proposals to help apartment owners trying to sort out their defective homes including:

The establishment of a redress scheme to assist homeowners with latent defects;
Provision of an information and advice service for those affected by defects;
Redress scheme to be funded through an industry levy matched by Government funding, tax write offs or interest-free loans.

Construction Defects Alliance

The Construction Defects Alliance has its origins in the Beacon South Quarter (BSQ) Lobby Group which started campaigning in 2017 for action for homeowners affected by defects.

As more apartment owners and OMC directors from other developments got involved in the campaign the Alliance was set up in autumn 2019 to focus on getting redress for apartment owners as proposed by the Safe as Houses? report.

The Construction Defects Alliance now involves owners and OMC directors from hundreds of defective developments around the country as well as the Apartment Owners' Network (AON), the Not Our Fault Campaign, Clúid Housing, Cooperative Housing and Tuath Housing. It also has active involvement from some of the professionals who are working with the owners and OMCs concerned.

The Alliance's work is funded by AON, the BSQ Owners’ Management Company (OMC), Clúid, Cooperative and Tuath.

Making Progress

As a result of the Alliance's campaigning work, at the 2020 General Election, the current Government set up the Working Group on Defective Homes which reported in late July 2022. Following on from that report:

Government decided in January 2023 to set up a fully State-funded defects remediation scheme and approved the principle that owners who had already paid to have defects remediated should be reimbursed;
The Interim Remediation Scheme was established in December 2023 to address in the short-term the most pernicious fire safety issues so people could continue living safely in their apartments while they await full remediation.

The draft legislation underpinning the remediation scheme is due for publication in October 2024 and it is expected that a number of pathfinder projects will be announced around the same time to assist in the process of scoping out a Retrospective Payments Scheme.