Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am very pleased this issue is finally being discussed formally in the Dáil and I welcome the report and the Minister's response. I take this opportunity to give credit to the families affected by pyrite contamination and the Pyrite Action Group, many of whom have taken the time to come here today. These people spearheaded this campaign and have fought their corner with dignity and unswerving dedication. All they seek is a home they can feel secure in, a very small thing to ask for but which is, unfortunately, for many a tall order in this State. A home is an essential part of living in dignity. It is not simply a roof over one's head but a place where we can feel secure, safe and comfortable.

It should be a very basic right which the State provides for, although for many decades it was the concerted aim of the State to maximise home ownership regardless of the suitability to the populace. It was made desirable to own a home, even if a person could not afford it. It seems people were fools if they did not want to buy their own homes, and mortgages were handed out with little care for details. People were told credit was and would stay cheap, and if a person did not have money now, he or she could pay back the money later.

In the past decade, due to the massive availability of credit for everyone who wanted it, builders and developers were never out of work. Houses, apartment blocks and other commercial and civil buildings were often just thrown up. This was done in a system of few checks and balances, and legislation and resourcing for inspection of these works was wholly inadequate. Self-regulation was expected by the same Fianna Fáil Government that brought us the Anglo Irish Bank debacle.

When competition is high and the jobs are backing up, self-regulation becomes a byword for no regulation. Opportunistic developers, builders, quarry owners and concrete wholesalers wondered why they should regulate themselves at their own expense. Why go by the standards of other more respectable people in the market when they could undercut them or simply raise the profit margin with no consequences? In all cases where under-regulation met greed, there were very real consequences, but the people who faced them were those who in utmost good faith bought their homes on these estates, thrown up by people who did not give the slightest damn about the quality of the work. They paid no mind to the fact they were building family homes which people paid for with hard-earned savings.

The bottom line was everything to those businesses, and so it was for the Government of the day. According to Fianna Fáil, regulation is just another word for lost profits. There remains no mandatory testing of quarries for heave potential. This has been a long drawn-out process, with much investigation having been done. The report produced is of a high quality but we needed no report to tell us that quarries should be tested for a substance which could cause a house foundation to expand and the damage that would to do to the entire structure.

There are houses around north Dublin and Meath being torn apart from the inside because of these very simple but unforgivable failures to regulate. At no point on the chain of supply were any sufficient checks made to see if the material being used for the foundations of these houses was suitable. At no point did any regulation require those in the quarry, the concrete suppliers or the construction company doing the work to ascertain the quality of their materials and that substances like pyrite were not present. Self-regulation failed as it always will in most cases, and government regulation was not even in place. This was the case not just for pyrite contamination but fire safety and other standards. We have been lucky not to have had more pyrite-contaminated houses and cases such as those in Priory Hall, Gleann Riada, Balgaddy or The Laurels.

In my own area we have local authority housing such as Avila Park, which is also contaminated. There are five families which have been living in caravans for over two years, waiting for their homes to be repaired or rebuilt. Is the fact these are Traveller families related to their being left in appalling conditions? More than 10,000 homes were identified in the report but there are many more, including local authority housing like in the case of Avila Park. It cannot be stated any more clearly that the State failed these families utterly and so far it has continued to fail them.

We need legislative reform of inspections and building standards which will make these kind of scandals much more rare and easily resolved. In the North of Ireland inspection rates are 100% and they are the same in places like the USA and Britain. We settled for inspection rates of approximately 10% because the economic activity of construction was more important than the housing produced and the people who would have to live in it.

The report found correctly that builders, subcontractors, vendors, material suppliers and insurers were to blame for the failure to carry out sufficient checks and balances to ensure their build quality was up to standard and safe. The report does not, however, state what is obvious in that the State and its laws were completely deficient. It must bear a responsibility and a duty of care to the people affected by pyrite, and it must step up to the plate not just in facilitating a result but in making a meaningful effort to help the families affected at present and in the future while ensuring building practices like those which caused the pyrite problem will never be allowed again.

Part of this process could be a commitment by the State to pay now for the repairs identified as of immediate need in the panel's report. Some 850 homes were identified as requiring immediate repairs due to serious structural damage caused by pyrite contamination. This money could be recouped over time by whatever mechanism is put in place to levy the other responsible parties. A special mention must be given to HomeBond, which denied its duty to customers and gave two fingers to the Oireachtas on a number of occasions over the past year and a half. How it can be let continue to trade after its behaviour is beyond me, but what is most shocking is the appointment of HomeBond's customer service manager to the Building Regulations Advisory Board by this Government. HomeBond could learn a lot about customer service and share some of the profits it recently announced.

It is also essential that part of the State's commitment to resolution of this issue is to see that a fund is put in place to deal with any future repairs which become unavoidable. Some of the homes which are not identified as needing immediate attention are at risk of developing problems into the future and the people affected cannot be allowed to lie in a limbo of having a pyrite problem develop too late for the support we demand for those who need it right now. A comprehensive and systematic notification, testing and remediation scheme should be put in place at no cost to those who require it.

It must be mentioned that thousands of people still work in these industries and in companies which operate on a sufficient level of self-regulation, with no part in the supply chain or construction which led to the pyrite scandal.

We must act in a way which does not put these businesses, which did not act negligently, out of operation due to the acts of others who, in some cases, maybe undercut them by using substandard practices.

The pyrite action group has circulated a number of actions it believes are needed to get the resolution process right and I would be inclined to agree with it. These include the immediate removal of defective infill from all homes found to be at risk of pyritic heave and sulfate attack; remedial works to be carried out systematically in blocks; the independent and professional co-ordination of remedial works; independent structural re-certification, full compliance with the building regulations and a new credible structural warranty; provision of upfront funding in order that remedial works can be undertaken quickly while the State recoups costs from other responsible stakeholders through the proposed levy, voluntary contributions and other appropriate mechanisms over the longer term; and a retrospective waiver of the household charge and forthcoming property taxes for home owners living in affected developments until the entire development has been brought up to standard and can be successfully reintegrated back into the property market. All the Deputies have seen these requests and all the Ministers have received them, including the Minister, Deputy Hogan. We would be hard-pressed to disagree with them and the onus is on us to hold the resolution process to account and strive to have these requests honoured. The State, at the very least, owes these people that.

I would like to go back to the issue of those living in local authority housing affected by pyrite, which is not mentioned in this report. We still have no idea how many there are but there are at least 300 in my constituency. Due to the shortage of local authority housing, these people are also in limbo and are forced to seek temporary accommodation or to live in homes which are unsuitable and possibly dangerous. Local government funding is needed to address this not only in homes, but in community centres, schools and other facilities, which we have all seen.

The Minister promised at the end of September that if he did not get replies from the industries concerned, he would impose a solution. He got replies but they seem very inadequate. This issue is so serious that we demand a better response. The Minister mentioned that he would give it in ten days. I had hoped we would have a definitive answer today on what actions he would take - not a holding position but a clear and unambiguous solution which will cover all those affected now and into the future.

Tens of thousands of people are affected - men, women and children. We are not just talking about 10,000 homes but about tens of thousands of people who live in these homes. They face constant worry about their future and their children's future.

The pyrite report was a good piece of work and I welcome it. In the Elliot case, which the Minister mentioned, work is being done and all the floors and the paths are being taken out. It was not selective. I hope we will not delay by putting in place a resolution board. We will have to go through the whole process of assessing people and their houses. It is very important we get this right.

I welcome the fact we will debate this issue again soon. This issue will not go away and it needs resolution. Without an upfront levy and without the Government putting its name on the chequebook, we will have big problems. It will take time to build up a levy, if that is the route we take. I said that legislation may be needed and we need to assess that as quickly as possible.

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