merrion street

The Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage Darragh O’Brien TD has appointed Seamus Neely, former Chief Executive of Donegal County Council to the position of Chair of the newly established Independent Working Group on Defective Housing.

The membership and terms of reference of the Independent Working Group are currently being finalised and will be published in due course.

Commenting Minister O’Brien said, “Having worked on this issue, and advocated on behalf of affected homeowners for many years, I was very supportive, along with my Government colleagues, of its inclusion in the Programme for Government.

“The Programme for Government specifically states that the issue is to be examined in the first 12 months of the Government and the establishment of this Independent Working Group, which will be up and running in Q1 of this year, is a clear demonstration of how seriously I treat this issue.

“I have had several meetings with stakeholder representative groups over recent months and I believe there is widespread support for the establishment of this group. I want to thank Mr Neely for accepting the position and I look forward to working with him, and all members of the Group, when fully established,” concluded Minister O’Brien.