The Celtic Tiger built fast and, in too many blocks, badly: missing fire-stopping, failing balconies, water finding its way through envelopes that should have kept it out. The State’s answer is a remediation programme of historic scale — but it arrives in stages, runs through your management company, and leaves owners with genuine strategic decisions in the meantime. This is the current map, honestly drawn.
Mary Molloy Solicitors are solicitors, not engineers, architects or building surveyors. Nothing on this page is a technical assessment of any property or works. Defects claims stand or fall on independent expert evidence — a chartered engineer’s or building surveyor’s report — obtained early. Scheme rules, grant rates and legislation in this area change frequently; confirm the current position before making any decision.
The Two-Stage Scheme Landscape
Now: the Interim Remediation Scheme (launched December 2023) funds emergency fire-safety works in eligible 1991–2013 apartments and duplexes — the OMC applies to the Housing Agency, works are scoped to fire-safety risk, and the programme has experienced procurement-related delays acknowledged in early 2025. Coming: the comprehensive statutory scheme under the Apartment and Duplex Defects Remediation legislation — pre-legislative scrutiny completed in early 2026, drafting ongoing, intended to fund fire safety, structural and water-ingress remediation at building level, with retrospective cover for qualifying works done since 17 January 2023 and public debate live about final parameters. Every figure in this area is provisional until the Act is passed — our full status guide: the remediation scheme explained.
Where the Solicitor Fits
- Moving a slow OMC: member rights, requisitioned meetings and directors’ duties under the MUD Act framework — the lever when the board won’t engage;
- Paper-trail architecture: structuring assessments, levies and works records so retrospective claims survive scrutiny;
- The litigation remainder: mapping surviving claims against developers, builders and certifiers — with blunt advice about limitation and defendant solvency (builder insolvency realism);
- Transactions in defective blocks: advising buyers and sellers where defects and scheme status meet a sale — disclosure, price and undertakings;
- Scheme decisions: eligibility and scope determinations are public-law decisions — where one goes wrong, see our judicial review practice.
Defects in Your Block?
Owner or OMC director - one call maps the scheme position, the paper trail to build and any claims still alive.
Call 01 5827148