{"id":596154,"date":"2026-08-17T16:14:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T16:14:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/596154\/"},"modified":"2026-08-17T16:14:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T16:14:13","slug":"heartbreaking-elderly-couples-retirement-dream-destroyed-by-defective-concrete","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/596154\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Heartbreaking:’ Elderly couple’s retirement dream destroyed by defective concrete"},"content":{"rendered":"

An elderly couple, one with dementia, have been forced to relocate from their hard-earned retirement home due to defective concrete.<\/p>\n

In a very personal update, 100% Redress Party Councillor Ali Farren shared a video on his Facebook page, in which he told how his parents bought the home in 2007.<\/p>\n

They hoped to live there all their lives, but now don’t know if they will ever be able to return.<\/p>\n

In the video, Cllr Farren can be seen standing in front of the home, which is very visibly cracked and crumbling.<\/p>\n

Cllr Farren’s mother has dementia and he told Donegal Daily that the move was very emotional.<\/p>\n

He added how, despite the heartbreak defective concrete causes, quarries are still self regulating.<\/p>\n

“There’s no way to know if the blocks you’re getting this time will make a better job or not than the ones you’re knocking down.<\/p>\n

“You’ve a better chance of getting a good burger than a good block in this country.”<\/p>\n

Cllr Farren outlined how his parents bought their retirement home after a lifetime of hard work.<\/p>\n

“They reared eight of us and worked 24\/7 in the bar and business.<\/p>\n

“They bought this retirement home and now have to leave, through no fault of their own.<\/p>\n

“Some people have asked why we’re putting them through it, but it’s my father’s decision – he doesn’t want to leave this handling for someone else.”<\/p>\n

Cllr Farren said his family is fortunate, as there are so many of them available to help, but others don’t have that support.<\/p>\n

“It was heartbreaking moving them out yesterday.<\/p>\n

“We’re lucky, in many ways, that we have a scheme that will allow us to demolish this house.<\/p>\n

“But, we don’t know how much of an impact it will have on my parents, or how the new surroundings will affect my mother.<\/p>\n

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“We’re very lucky to have family to help.<\/p>\n

“But the reality is this was built as a retirement home and had defective blocks.<\/p>\n

“And, we don’t know if the blocks we’re getting today are any better or fit for purpose.<\/p>\n

“We’ve no regulations on the people who manufacture blocks, in this State. The Government could be putting good money after bad.<\/p>\n

“They’ve given us a grant, to rebuild this house, which is better than nothing.<\/p>\n

“The reality is, this could happen again in another 20 years’ time.<\/p>\n

“So, this is not about getting sympathy. It’s my parents, yes, but it could be your parents, or anyone’s going forward.<\/p>\n

“The fact we don’t have regulations in this country says a lot.”<\/p>\n

Responding to Cllr Farren’s video, his 100% Redress Party colleague, Cllr Joy Beard, said she is receiving ‘more and more calls from elderly victims’ of the crisis.<\/p>\n

She said: ” Ali has shared this very personal video about his elderly parents as they prepare to demolish their home because of defective concrete.<\/p>\n

“His mum is living with dementia. Thankfully, Ali and other family members are there to help them through what is an incredibly difficult and stressful process.<\/p>\n

“But what about older homeowners who don\u2019t have family support?<\/p>\n

“I\u2019m receiving more and more calls from elderly victims not knowing where to turn – this is beyond cruel. Always remember victims did nothing wrong!<\/p>\n

“This is exactly why I continue to call for an end-to-end scheme, particularly for our elderly and most vulnerable homeowners.<\/p>\n

“People should not be expected to navigate engineers, applications, contractors, moving, storage, temporary accommodation, demolition and rebuilding on their own.<\/p>\n

“We should have the same as the Pyrite Remediation Scheme.<\/p>\n

“Everything is and has been a battle!<\/p>\n

“Hard to believe here in Donegal market surveillance is reactive and not proactive after what has happened – shocking!<\/p>\n

“Thank you to Ali and his family for allowing their experience to be shared.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An elderly couple, one with dementia, have been forced to relocate from their hard-earned retirement home due to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":596155,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,61,60],"class_list":["post-596154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596154","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=596154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596154\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/596155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=596154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=596154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=596154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}