Shane McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)

It is cruel but is happening all over. It is happening in the Minister of State's county. These are fantastic families whom I never met before. This is happening in Deputy Flanagan's constituency and he knew about the problem a long time ago. A court case is due but that is for another day.

I ask the Minister to get to the bottom of this. No insurance companies will cover builders' insurance and most builders have gone, in any event. They are bankrupt and it cannot be helped. At this stage, the Government must set up a combined body of Deputies to sit down and look at the situation and see what is the best way forward because it will land on our doors, whether now or in two years' time, no matter who is in Government. It is a very serious problem and I would not like to be living in one of those houses.

Homebond has done its best and many good builders have tried to do their best but, unfortunately, the material is being used still. People can make excuses for it but it is being used as we speak. The NRA is to come to the committee on 7 April and it will have some explaining to do to convince me that pyrite is not being used.

As Deputy Flanagan noted about other buildings across north county Dublin, the substance is present. The situation is the same as in Canada and England. We must protect these houses which can be fixed. I have seen two houses that will still have a ten-year guarantee when Homebond walks out. The problem can be fixed but the only way to do this is to take out the faulty material, the pyrite. People think the fault is in the concrete or the blocks but the pyrite is in the filling that goes into the floor. This filling comes from certain quarries that have a high content of sulphur. When it hits the atmosphere, or moist material, it starts to explode. It will increase its size by up to 100 times and when it gets to a certain stage, it brings everything else with it. When it explodes, the sulphur within starts eating the concrete and over a period of a year will bring the concrete to dust. Unless one has seen this with one's own eyes, and read about it beforehand, one would not believe it.

I know the Minister of State has a fair amount on his plate but I ask him to listen to what Deputies from all these constituencies are saying. A person can have a lot of problems or be without a job but when he or she has no viable house after securing a €200,000 mortgage, it is terrible. One can go into such a house, sit down and look. It is a cruel house to go into but the people involved are great and the situation can be fixed. It is like everything else. I want to be positive in regard to these houses.

The Minister of State knows my constituency of Meath East. It was a funny spot for five or ten years and there were many planning decisions of which I would not be proud, but we have what we have and we must protect the houses. I ask the Minister of State not to allow anybody to knock down any half-built houses because we will need them in five or six years' time.

The Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Gormley, was not in the Chamber when I made my last point but I shall repeat it now. It has nothing to do with planning. I enjoyed the day the Minister came down.

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