{"id":565803,"date":"2026-07-24T11:02:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T11:02:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/565803\/"},"modified":"2026-07-24T11:02:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T11:02:12","slug":"new-dcb-testing-approach-could-save-state-e50m-council-told","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/565803\/","title":{"rendered":"New DCB testing approach could save State \u20ac50M, council told"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Donegal councillor has called on the Government to urgently adopt new testing protocols for defective concrete block homes in light of the revised I.S. 465:2026 standard.<\/p>\n

Councillor Denis McGee of the 100% Redress Party is warning that failing to properly assess foundations before rebuilding could leave families facing future problems.<\/p>\n

The Glenties area councillor brought a motion before Monday’s meeting of Donegal County Council urging the Minister for Housing to heed recommendations<\/a> from international geologists and scientists that foundation testing should form part of the core sampling process.<\/p>\n

He also argued that adopting newer testing protocols could significantly reduce waiting times for homeowners<\/a> while avoiding unnecessary public spending.<\/p>\n

“It makes no sense to rebuild homes on foundations affected by internal sulphate attack if those foundations are going to weaken over time,” he said.<\/p>\n

“By carrying out proper foundation testing at the core-sampling stage, millions of euro could be saved.<\/p>\n

“80% of these core sample test results could be delivered in six weeks, not nine months.”<\/p>\n

Cllr McGee said the new testing protocol is estimated to cost \u20ac900, as opposed to \u20ac7,000-8,000 prices currently faced.<\/p>\n

“This is not the government’s money, it’s taxpayers’ money, and it’s being wasted.”<\/p>\n

The new testing protocols follow a two-stage process, starting with a basic screening (Suite A) and moving to detailed forensic analysis (Suite B) only if the initial results are not clear.<\/p>\n

Seconding the motion, Cllr Joy Beard said the updated standard strengthened the case for testing foundations before rebuilding begins.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe revised I.S. 465:2026 standard recognises that foundations are potentially at risk and they have the same defective concrete mechanism as what is found in the blocks,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

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Beard revealed that her own home’s foundations had already been removed and tested and classified as high risk.<\/p>\n

“It simply makes no sense at all to spend hundreds of thousands of euro demolishing and rebuilding a home, leaving defective foundations potentially in place,” she said.<\/p>\n

“If we get this wrong today, we are storing up problems for the future.”<\/p>\n

She said families were continuing to face lengthy waits for test results, leaving them unable to move forward with rebuilding.<\/p>\n

“Families are waiting a minimum of nine months now for testing to be done,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Those delays mean people remain in damaged homes, they can’t carry on with organising the rebuilding of their homes.<\/p>\n

“They basically remain trapped in that home, which is dangerous and unhealthy.”<\/p>\n

Cllr Beard said information presented to the Oireachtas by Petrolab, a private company involved in testing defective concrete block homes, suggested that the new testing protocol in the revised I.S. 465:2026 could significantly reduce waiting times.<\/p>\n

“If improved scientific methods can reduce the turnaround times from many months to a matter of weeks, then that’s something that should be embraced immediately,” she said.<\/p>\n

Cllr Beard said Petrolab had estimated that reducing unnecessary testing could save the State around \u20ac50 million.<\/p>\n

“Good science leads to the right decisions being made,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Right decisions will save money. But most importantly, they get these families back into their safe homes sooner.”<\/p>\n

The motion was adopted without opposition, with Donegal County Council agreeing to write to the Minister for Housing outlining the concerns raised.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Donegal councillor has called on the Government to urgently adopt new testing protocols for defective concrete block…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":565804,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-565803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=565803"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565803\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/565804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=565803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=565803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=565803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}