Minister for Housing Darragh O'Brien has said that the government is using every legal avenue to hold companies that produced defective building blocks accountable.

It comes after a Defective Concrete Products Levy was announced in Budget 2023 to help cover the Mica redress scheme.

The levy is expected to raise €80 million per year, and will be applied at a rate of 10% from April 2023.

The Tánaiste Leo Varadkar earlier this week said he's frustrated there have been no prosecutions of people responsible for the scandal.

'Any legal avenue'

Housing Minister O'Brien said that the government is chasing the builders responsible.

"We're looking at using any legal avenue available to us to go after those very people that the Tánaiste mentioned who have been operating for the last ten or twelve years."

"This isn't a new event that the people who provided defective blocks - they have absolutely, I believe, a moral responsibility, but legally we will see what we can do", he said.

"Unfortunately many of those companies, as the Tánaiste will know, folded."

Construction industry experts have warned that it will add between €2,000 and €3,000 to the cost of building a typical house.

The Tánaiste said that the levy is the “least worst way” of beginning to raise funds for the redress schemes.

He added that he would like to see firmer action taken against those responsible for the defects.

Defective blocks

Around 5,000 homes in Donegal are impacted by the mica crisis with thousands more constructed with faulty blocks in Mayo, Sligo, Clare and Limerick.

There are also issues with Celtic Tiger-era apartments in urban areas as well as the long-running pyrite scandal.

Government ministers have been warned that the redress schemes could end up costing the taxpayer more than €3.5bn.