The Department of Housing is preparing to issue its report on the establishment of a redress scheme, which looks set to exclude social homes.

Expected this June, the report is being developed to remedy Celtic Tiger era fire safety and other structural defects.

Sinn Féin representative Eoin Ó Broin TD has criticised the possible exclusion of social homes.

"There are over 1,000 social homes in Donegal and several hundred in Mayo with mica and pyrite," said Deputy Ó Broin. "Clearly, the government is worried that any inclusion of social homes for fire safety defects redress would set a precedent that they desperately want to avoid.

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"It doesn't make sense from a financial perspective to exclude these homes. In many cases they are co-located with owner-occupiers in apartment blocks. Remediation could be difficult to achieve and more expensive if all the apartments are not included in a scheme. 

"Furthermore, social homes owned by AHBs cannot avail of the tax rebates that private investors do, and are spending their housing maintenance budgets on remediating homes that are defective due to the negligence of builders and the state to adequately police it.

"While we eagerly await the working group's final report, I would urge the Department to ensure that all properties - apartments, duplexes and houses - are eligible for full redress. 

"This must be the case for both homeowners and social landlords."