Failed by the State: Nicola Byrne's Defective Concrete Nightmare

Imagine finding mouse droppings on your pillow. Now imagine you are stuck living in that scenario - indefinitely!

Nicola Byrne hired an engineer to check out her potential "forever home" near Castlebar. Everything looked good. She and her  husband, Derek, bought the house.

However, within days, things were going wrong.

Today, seven people share a converted garage granny flat. 

The family have an additional problem: They viewed this house at Christmas 2020. But the government's cutoff date for the remediation scheme is January 2020. Now she has to prove she wasn't acting as a vulture fund.

Just when she thinks she's been approved for the scheme, Nicola finds out that she has to pay for retention for an attic space that wasn't in the original plans. An attic that the family cannot afford to rebuild anyway.

This episode reveals what happens when your dream home is defective and the system designed to help becomes another nightmare.

A bureaucracy that sends homeowners round in circles.

Nicola, along with Margaret Walsh, are organising a NATIONAL protest with next Tuesday on the 25th November. She refusing to stay silent.

Because if it can happen to the Byrnes, it can happen to anyone.

Here is a link to the full talk by Dr Christopher Brough from Petrolab to Engineers Ireland that took place in person in the University of Limerick.

This is the UpSet in Concrete Podcast with Grant March at Backstory.ie.