(3)The Minister may amend guidelines made under subsection (1).
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(4)The Minister shall notify designated local authorities and the Housing Agency of the making of guidelines under subsection (1) or amendments of them under subsection (3) and shall publish the guidelines or amendments on a website maintained by or on behalf of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage as soon as may be after they are made.
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Review of operation of Act 51. (1) The Minister shall— (a) not later than 3 years after the date of the coming into operation of this section, commence a review of the operation of this Act, and (b) not later than 12 months after the expiration of that 3 year period, make a report to each House of the Oireachtas of his or her findings and conclusions resulting from that review.
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(2)Without prejudice to subsection (1), the Minister shall commence a review of the operation of this Act within 3 months of the completion of any review of I.S. 465: 2018 by the National Standards Authority of Ireland and not later than 3 months after the completion of the review shall make a report to each House of the Oireachtas of his or her findings and conclusions resulting from that review.
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Offences and penalties 52. (1) A person who furnishes information— (a) to a designated local authority in purported compliance with this Act, (b) the Housing Agency in purported compliance with this Act, or (c) an Appeal Board in purported compliance with
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Part 5
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, that is false or misleading, knowing it to be false or misleading or being reckless as to whether it is false or misleading, shall be guilty of an offence.
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(2)A person who is guilty of an offence under subsection (1) is liable— (a) on summary conviction to a class A fine, or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months or both, or (b) on conviction on indictment to a fine not exceeding €50,000 or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 5 years or both.
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(3)A person who without reasonable excuse— (a) refuses to comply with a requirement of an authorised officer under section 43 ,or (b) obstructs or impedes an authorised officer in the exercise of any of the powers referred to section 43 , shall be guilty of an offence.
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(4)A person guilty of an offence under subsection (3) shall be liable on summary conviction to a class A fine or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 6 months, or both.
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(5)Where a person is convicted of an offence under this section the court, unless it is satisfied that there are special and substantial reasons for not doing so, shall order the person to pay to the prosecutor the costs and expense, measured by the court, incurred by the prosecutor or other person in relation to the investigation, detection and prosecution of the offence, including costs incurred in respect of the remuneration and other expenses of the Housing Agency or designated local authority in the carrying out of the tests, examinations and analyses.
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(6)A person shall not be eligible to apply for a remediation option grant under section 13 where he or she is convicted of an offence under subsection (1).
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Disqualification for providing false or misleading information 53. (1) Where a designated local authority determines that a person has furnished information to the designated local authority for the purposes of making an application under section 13 which he or she knows is false or misleading, or being reckless as to whether it is false or misleading— (a) the designated local authority shall, where it has not at the time of the determination made a decision under section 13
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(7)in respect of the application, refuse to consider further the application, and (b) subject to section 52
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(6), the person shall be disqualified from making a further application for a period of 5 years from the date of the designated local authority’s determination.
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(2)The designated local authority shall not make a determination under subsection (1) unless it has given the person the opportunity to make representations to the designated local authority in relation to its proposal to make the determination.
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(3)The Minister may prescribe— (a) the procedure by which a designated local authority may make a determination under subsection (1), and (b) the form and manner in which representations referred to in subsection (2) may be made.
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Chapter 2
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Transitional and saving provisions Interpretation for Chapter 2 of Part 6 54. (1) In this Chapter— “engineer’s report” has the same meaning as it has in the Regulations; “relevant local authority” has the same meaning as it has in the Regulations; “the Regulations” means the Dwellings Damaged by the Use of Defective Concrete Blocks in Construction (Remediation) (Financial Assistance) Regulations 2020.
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(2)A reference in this Chapter to a Regulation shall be construed as a reference to a Regulation of the Regulations.
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(3)A reference in section 56 or 57 to a particular modification or modifications as may be prescribed shall include a reference to all other necessary modifications.
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Revocation 55. The Regulations are revoked in so far as they are not saved by sections 56 and 57 .
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Confirmation of eligibility 56. (1) Where an individual has engaged an engineer for the purposes of making an application under Regulation 8 but has not before the date of coming into operation of section 55 made the application, the individual may on or after that date make an application under section 13 and the application shall be considered in accordance with this Act, subject to the following modifications: (a) the reference in subsections (2) and (9) of section 13 to a building condition assessment report shall be construed as a reference to the engineer’s report prepared by the engineer engaged by the individual; (b) in section 16
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(1), “may” shall be substituted for “shall”; (c) the Housing Agency may, where it considers it appropriate, consider the engineer’s report to be a report referred to in section 16
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(1).
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(2)Where an individual has made an application under Regulation 8, but the relevant local authority has, before the date of coming into operation of section 55 , either not issued a confirmation of eligibility under Regulation 8(8) or decided not to issue a confirmation under Regulation 8(9), the application shall, on and after that date, be considered to be an application under section 13 , and shall be considered by the designated local authority in accordance with this Act, subject to the modifications referred to in subsection (1).
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Confirmation of grant approval 57. (1) Where an individual has been issued a confirmation of eligibility under Regulation 8(8) before the date of coming into operation of section 55 but has not before that date been issued a confirmation of grant approval under Regulation 9(7) or received a decision not to issue a confirmation of grant approval under Regulation 9(10) — (a) the application made under Regulation 8 shall be considered to be an application approved by the Housing Agency under section 16
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(4)(a)(i). (b) the relevant remedial option referred to in Regulation 8(8) in respect of which the confirmation of eligibility was issued shall, on and after that date be considered to be the approved remediation option, (c) the relevant local authority which issued the confirmation of eligibility shall approve, in accordance with section 10 , or any order made under section 11 , the remediation option grant which may be paid to the relevant owner under section 18 , and (d) the approved remediation option and remediation option grant referred to in paragraphs (b) and (c) shall, for the purposes of this Act, be considered to be an approval under section 16
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(4)(a) and this Act shall apply accordingly to it, subject to the following modifications: (i) section 16
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(7)shall not apply; (ii) where payments referred to in Regulation 8(12) have been made to the individual, the individual shall not be approved for a grant under section 22
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(6).
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(2)Where an individual has been issued a confirmation of grant approval under Regulation 9(7) before the date of coming into operation of section 55 , the relevant local authority on or after that date, in accordance with such procedure as may be prescribed— (a) shall, subject to subsection (3), revise the confirmation of grant approval in accordance with section 10 , or any order made under section 11 , and for that purpose shall consider that the relevant remedial option in respect of which the individual received a confirmation of eligibility under Regulation 8 shall be the remediation option in relation to which the confirmation of grant approval is revised, and (b) shall, subject to subsection (4), consider any application made by the individual for an ancillary grant referred to in section 10
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(2).
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(3)Where the amount of a remediation option grant which would result from the revision referred to in subsection (2)(a) would be less than the amount of the grant approved under the confirmation of grant approval under Regulation 9, the relevant local authority shall not revise the confirmation of grant approval.
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(4)Where payments referred to in Regulation 9(8A) have been made to the individual, the individual shall not be approved for a grant under section 22
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(6).
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(5)Following the revision referred to in subsection (2), the individual— (a) shall, for the purposes of any further applications made by him or her under this Act, and subject to such modifications as may be prescribed, be considered to have received an approval under section 16
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(4)(a). (b) may be given a letter of assurance in accordance with section 21 , subject to such modifications as may be prescribed, and (c) where the letter of assurance is given, may apply for a second grant in accordance with section 25 .
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(6)Subject to subsections (2)(a) and (3), and such other modification as may be prescribed, the Regulations shall continue to apply to an individual referred to in subsection (2) .
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(7)Where an eligible applicant or individual has given notice to the relevant local authority under and in accordance with Regulation 11(1) before the date of the coming into operation of section 55 , Regulation 11 shall continue to apply in respect of the eligible applicant or individual on and after that date.
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(8)Where an individual has notified the relevant local authority under and in accordance with Regulation 12(1) before the date of coming into operation of section 55 , Regulation 12 shall continue to apply in respect of the individual on and after that date.
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(9)An appeal under Regulation 13 may be made within 28 days after the date of the coming into operation of section 55 .
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(10)Subject to subsection (9),
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Part 5
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shall apply to an appeal under Regulation 13 as if section 55 had not come into operation and, subject to matters of procedure or necessary modifications of
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Part 5
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as may be prescribed under section 58
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(2)for the purposes of this section, the appeal shall be considered and determined under
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Part 5
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.
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(11)
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Section 28
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shall apply, subject to the modifications referred to in subsection (12) to an individual issued a confirmation of grant approval under Regulation 9 before the date of coming into operation of section 55 .
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(12)The modifications are: (a) the reference in section 28
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(1)to “development consisting of the completion of an approved remediation option” shall be construed as a reference to “development consisting of the completion of a relevant remedial option” under the Regulations; (b) the reference in section 28
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(2)to the “relevant dwelling in respect of which the approved remediation option is to be completed” shall be construed as a reference to the relevant dwelling the subject of the confirmation of grant approval under Regulation 9 in respect of which the relevant remedial option is completed; (c) the reference in section 28
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(3)to “the approved remediation option” is a reference to the “relevant remedial option” under the Regulations.
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Regulations for purposes of sections 56 and 57 58. (1) The Minister may make such further incidental, supplementary and consequential provision by regulations as he or she considers appropriate for the purposes of giving effect to sections 56 and 57 .
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(2)Without prejudice to the generality of subsection (1), the Minister may prescribe— (a) the circumstances in which an engineer is considered to be engaged for the purposes of section 56
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(1). (b) subject to subsection (3), the amount of a payment which may be given to an individual referred to in subsection (1) or (2) of section 56 for the purposes of reimbursing him or her for the cost of the engineer’s report referred to in that section, (c) the procedure by which the relevant local authority shall perform its functions under subsections (1) and (2) of section 57 , (d) the procedure by which an individual may claim payments of any grant approved, revised, or applied for, in accordance with section 57 , (e) subject to subsections (9) and (10) of section 57 , the manner in which appeals under Regulation 13 are to be conducted.
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(3)The amount of a payment which may be prescribed by regulations made under subsection (2)(b) shall not exceed the lesser of— (a) the expenditure of the person in respect of the engineer’s report, and (b) €7,000.
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1 OJ No. L 119, 4.5.2016, p.1.
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