Danny & Kate Rafferty whose Derry whom is affected by defective blocks
A Derry family have spoken of how they feel they have been abandoned after having to borrow a substantial sum for repairs costing £100,000 to their home, which was partially built with the same defective blocks that have caused devastation for people and businesses across Ireland.
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NewsTranscript
00:00We've been fighting ever since to try and get support because the Republic of Ireland,
00:26their defective block scheme is only for Republic of Ireland residents. Even if you own a house
00:33in the Republic of Ireland and you live in Northern Ireland, you're not on the scheme.
00:40So it's affected a lot of homeowners up here. We applied to get on the scheme but they turned
00:52us down. I wasn't surprised but then I turned around and said to them, well, according to
01:02the Article 2 of the Irish Constitution, I am Irish, I have an Irish passport and even worse,
01:11I've worked for 30 years in the Republic of Ireland, paying tax and their PRSA. So I've
01:21paid all that and I'm even entitled to an Irish pension. For Stormont, I've been emailing and
01:31trying to contact everybody in Stormont. We were told that, oh, it's because Stormont was down,
01:39when it comes back up again, it'll be better. It came back up again and it wasn't better.
01:45I've been writing to Minister Gordon Lyons in the Department of Communities and I've been
01:56including those emails. I don't care if they're green, orange or whatever because I think it's
02:05something that would affect everybody. So I've been including everybody on my emails and in
02:15fair play to them, a lot of them have come back and said that they'll support us.
02:22So these are the remains of a block there. This is one of the leftover blocks?
02:46Yeah. And you're noticing more and more cracks now? Yeah. As you can see, that's where they
03:00put the sample there, the core samples. They take that out. And those results have just
03:07come back recently, in the last few months. Now for the worst. Here you go,
03:23you have to stand back a wee bit. Here she's starting here now, look. Going up here. Look
03:31at up the en-suite window. Yeah. And you see over in that corner, it's actually gone now,
03:39about five mil wide. And that? She's about five, ten mil wide, starting to go there. And actually
03:45that bit's coming off up there. So that's the most worrisome part of the house? The builder
03:52actually looked up, up the side of the house and he said that the en-suite window was starting to
03:59blow out. So I can imagine myself going in there to the bathroom someday and landing out here.
04:06And then have a look at this. This is up. Anyway, we got a letter back from Minister Lyons department,
04:23well actually a fella called Derek Kennedy and Mr Lyons department saying they'd looked at the
04:31issue. It was not a, they reckoned it was not a systemic issue because we were the only person
04:39in Northern Ireland that have come forward on a private house. We were the only people in Northern
04:47Ireland to come forward. So they would not create a support system for one, one property. So more
04:57or less going rot in hell. I emailed him again and like kept on emailing him and eventually he came
05:05back and said like, I would advise you to reach out to the, I think it's OPSS department in London
05:15because they look after all the standards for this type of thing and you can reach out to them.
05:22So I found their email address online and I started emailing them and eventually they
05:30replied back to me and said that it was a devolved matter and that Mr Lyons in the
05:39Communities department need to be looking after this and not them. Back again to Mr Lyons and we
05:49got another letter saying we sympathise with your situation but it's not, it's not a major issue.
05:58Like it doesn't affect many people and so we've been left in limbo.
06:06What I'd been asking Stormont to do, I says it doesn't matter if it's a, you know, if it's one case or a thousand.
06:15I says what you should be doing is going down, is you've got the North South bodies, you should be
06:22going to them and saying right, we've got a, we've got homes up here that have defective
06:31block issues. We're going to give them remediation but you should be giving the money to us to cover
06:40for it because it's their issue after all. Then if that is, if that's the course of action right,
06:53that you know, say if I lead the way and it's, you know, they do that then I reckon that other
07:03properties with the same problem will come forward then because I know there are definitely ones in
07:11Derry. I was actually talking to a man and he says whenever the cracks appear he says I just cover
07:21them up and he says and I paint the house and hope for the best.
07:27What did he say, so you just had to borrow, was it a hundred thousand pound that you had to borrow?
07:31Yeah. It's costing a hundred thousand pound so we've used any savings that we've had.
07:39It cost us around seven grand I think for the, for the testing, for the testing.
07:45Right, to, you know, and initially we got a test done that confirmed it and then,
07:54then we were told then if we were going to have to claim off the Irish government then they'd demand
07:59the whole, the whole suite of tests. So we got the whole suite done and then that came back as
08:07positive as well so then, right, and then that came back as positive as well so then, right,
08:17then they said right you're going to have to demolish the house and I says well that timber
08:20frame and then he says right we need to do a foundation test then. So then I got the foundation
08:26tested and the foundation came back as okay. Right. Right, because when we were building the house
08:34we got different people in to do the foundations and they came with their own blocks. Because of
08:40the. Well the chimneys are rotten as well. The chimneys. Yeah. So they will need like. Now
08:46we have to remove the chimney tops. Right. To roof level. To roof level, to underneath
08:52roof level. We have to lower them down to there because the, the chimneys are in the inner leaf,
09:02right. They should be okay because they're protected from the weather. Right. Because
09:08they're inside. Because they're on the inside. Oh I see what you mean. They're not, they're not,
09:14they're never going to be exposed to the elements like. Yes the chimneys are and if you go out and
09:18look at the chimneys they're, the paint's all fell off them and they're all. You can see, you can see
09:25cracks come along the lines of the blocks and everything. Right. So the external chimneys have
09:30to come out too. Yeah. So they have to come down and go below but what we're doing is we're thinking
09:35of maybe putting a stove in there and just putting a wee pipe up. Ah right. Rather than. Rather than
09:42having to rebuild the chimney again. Ah. With, I'm trying to put good blocks on top of bad blocks.
09:49Do you know what I mean? So I don't know how that will bloody work out so. It takes a massive toll
09:54as well just emotionally doesn't it? Like you know and just the stress of it all. And. I know.
10:03You think there will be some sort of support and then there's none. And anything that you want,
10:13anything you, it seems like you know, ah hard luck. You bought your blocks from Donegal.
10:19Ah. You just have to go and deal with it. Not our problem. Not a systemic issue in Northern Ireland.
10:28Go and look after yourself. We don't care how, we don't care how you get on really.
10:34Look I've, I've actually, well I've written, I wrote to different, to the different politicians
10:41down south thinking maybe they might, you know, I'll try and say why, why are you not including
10:46the people up here because they were good enough to buy products from there. You know it's,
10:51it's very unfair. I just think it's so unfair. We're, in the last four years of the mortgage,
10:57our current mortgage, we would have been paid off, um, by now like if.
11:07Yeah. Like we still have to pay the mortgage even though, you know. Right. Even though.
11:14It's like, it took the thousands and thousands of people to go up and protest outside the
11:20government in, in the south. In Dublin. In order to shame them into doing something, you know.
11:25Are we supposed to be doing the same thing? Us and whoever else's houses in Donegal from here.