Refusal of side-by-side rebuild for elderly couple ’heartbreaking’ - Devine - Donegal Daily

A Donegal County Councillor has told how an elderly couple, one with ’severe medical conditions’ has been refused the ’side-by-side’ building option in the Enha...

A Donegal County Councillor has told how an elderly couple, one with 'severe medical conditions' has been refused the 'side-by-side' building option in the Enhanced Defective Concrete Block Scheme.

Councillor Tomás Seán Devine outlined how the couple, one in their late 70s and the other in their mid-80s, asked for the option to rebuild beside their current, defective, home.

The request was due to one of their complex health conditions, which includes dementia.

However, they have been informed the option to do so has not been granted.

Cllr Devine said the medical conditions are such that the couple cannot find a suitable, alternative place to live.

He added how he was 'heartbroken' after visiting the couple, who live in the Letterkenny-Milford Municipal District.

"They have plenty of ground around the house to build alongside the house they are living in," he told Donegal Daily.

"I think it's shocking that this scheme is refusing a couple aged 84 and 79, with severe medical conditions in that house, to build side-by-side.

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"Life would be so much easier for them, if they were allowed to do so. It's bad enough that they bought a home that's defective. Now, at their age, having to go through this."

Cllr Devine said he would be 'fighting strongly' to get the decision overturned.

"I sat talking to them and it would have broken your heart. They need to be granted this option."

There is strict criteria for the adjacent remediation option or a ‘side-by-side remediation option,' which was announced by the Government in May.

To avail of this option, a member of the affected household must have a disability as defined under Section 2 of the Disability Act 2005, and among other conditions, the relevant dwelling must have certain adaptations.

It must also be constructed within the curtilege of the existing defective house, in which the homeowner must live for the while the new house is being built.

The Government said the option to apply is 'available to vulnerable homeowner families, in receipt of an Option 1 determination, who have already had their home specifically adapted for use by persons with a disability.'

The adaptations include floor lifts; downstairs toilet facilities adapted for use by a disabled person; accessible showers; fixed track hoists; extensions specifically added to facilitate a person with disability (typically a bedroom and/or bathroom).

They also include sensory spaces and non-minor adaptations to facilitate wheelchair access such as widened doors.

Additionally, it includes any other adaptations that, 'in the opinion of the designated local authority, were reasonably necessary for the purposes of rendering a house more suitable for the accommodation of a disabled person and were non-minor in nature.'

It is understood the refusal is, in part, due to the house not meeting adaptation criteria.