Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I have but if I do not use the opportunity now to speak about this I will not be able to do so because the Government has imposed a guillotine. I will use the opportunity. We cannot be stopped because there is a race to the bottom as quick as we can go. We must get in our say because we will not get one later. There will be a vote and that will be the end of it.

I wish to stress my point to the Minister and I will put it in writing. I do not take on board the Minister's comment on the worth of houses because one can have a house that is worth nothing. Would I, the Minister or any other Member want to buy a home in which somebody has died because of an extant problem with radon? Those affected must pay money every year to try to keep the badness, the gas, at bay. Nobody would want to live in such a house. If I were given one for nothing, I would not want to take it. I would not want anyone in my family to live in one, nor would the Minister or any other Member.

What I propose is not opening the floodgates such that thousands of houses will be implicated. Not many houses are affected by radon. The Government should make the same exception for those affected as it made for those whose houses are affected by pyrite. I again compliment the campaigners. What I am trying to do is put right a wrong. The Minister should state he will make an allowance and that there is no difference in the circumstances of those whose houses are affected by pyrite and those whose houses are affected by radon.

I have great respect for the Taoiseach but he gave me an ill-informed answer one morning on this issue. Just as Deputy Mick Wallace said pyrite is in the actual building, the Taoiseach said radon is coming from the ground up, thus making the circumstances different. I put it to the Minister that it is all the same; if the house is bad, the house is bad, be it affected by pyrite or radon. If a house is worthless and cannot be sold on the open market because somebody would not want to buy it, surely to God the Minister can take this on board, make an allowance and accept my amendment.

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