AROUND 350 people attended a special information session with officials from SEAI for homeowners with Defective Concrete Blocks in Buncrana last Monday night.

The event, which took place in the Inishowen Gateway Hotel, was attended by predominately, by DCB homeowners but also a constituency of local contractors and tradespeople came out on the night.

SEAI Head of National Retrofit & Communities, Brian O’Mahoney, along with Programme Manager National Retrofit, Stephen Farrell, outlined the various grants and supports now available for DCB homeowners when renovating or rebuilding their homes. 

The event was organised by Inishowen Development Partnership following a large volume of requests for further information through IDP’s DCB Facilitator Michelle Coyle in recent weeks.

Denise McCool IDP Team Lead said they were delighted that SEAI agreed to come to Inishowen to speak directly with the homeowners and contractors after the announcement in June that supports would be made available for DCB homes.

“We were pleased with the feedback from homeowners regarding last Monday’s event,” said Denise.

“We know there is a big demand for information from SEAI so to have them here in Inishowen, talking directly to our people was important.

“The SEAI’s new DCB team visited Inishowen in advance and worked with us to make the event very focused on DCB households and we want to thank them for that support. We will continue to work with them and support DCB homeowners in Inishowen in whatever way we can.  We have a second DCB facilitator starting in October which will help with the high level of households contacting us” added Denise.

Speaking on the night, SEAI Programme Manager National Retrofit, Stephen Farrell, said all the supports which are available on their website are now available to all DCB homes.

He informed people who have commenced or completed energy upgrade works on their DCB homes to contact the team directly at [email protected]

Another key part of the night was the presence of registered SEAI contractors and One Stop Shop suppliers in attendance around the room.

Mr. Farrell urged contractors in the room, who weren’t registered with SEAI, to do so and outlined the straightforward process and steps involved.

“It is so important to get more and more contractors registered [with SEAI],” he said. “Last year we have more than 60,000 applications for energy upgrades in Ireland and that number is growing all the time. SEAI registered installers get a lot of access to work and there is a lot of money out there for contractors to earn by carrying out these works,” added Mr. Farrell.

For more on the supports available see: www.seai.ie/grants/home-energy-grants/defective-concrete-blocks/