Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am pleased to have the opportunity to take part, albeit briefly, in this debate. From time to time, debates in this House lead nowhere and generate no action but we can acknowledge the announcement of the Minister of the establishment of a resolution board as an outcome to this debate. I welcome that and thank the Minister for taking the first small step along the road to a solution. The issue has been consistently raised at meetings of the Whips and Deputy Catherine Murphy has continually pushed for the debate to take place.

I am fortunate that we are not affected by this problem in south Kildare but I am conscious of the extent of the problem in north Kildare and the greater Dublin area. I have direct experience of people coming to my constituency clinics when they are in negative equity. They struggle to cope with mortgages if they are unemployed or have seen their incomes decrease dramatically. I can only imagine the horror and stress that must exist for families trying to pay mortgages, living with negative equity and facing the fact that the home they love and bought as a life investment and a place to raise a family is crumbling around them. We accept the point that the State did not cause the problem, as pointed out by the Minister, but the State must provide leadership towards finding a resolution to the problem. If the stakeholders continue to be derelict in their responsibilities, as they appear to have been to date, it behoves the State to take a strong leadership position and to engage, as the Minister suggests, through the resolution board and to take more resolute action if the engagement does not lead to concrete action.

Identifying the scale of the problem must be the first task. The cost to the interested parties, and ultimately to the State if the State is to pick up responsibility, depends on the number of properties affected. I am not unduly convinced by the report's certainty about the figure of 12,500.

The report says the panel endeavoured to establish the scale of the problem by estimating the number of ground floor dwellings that may have pyritic hard core. It goes on to state: "Therefore, in considering the extent of possible future exposure to pyritic heave, the panel is of the view that, taking the most pessimistic view, there may be approximately 10,300 units." The report goes on to say that three schools have been identified by the Department of Education and that approximately 850 social and affordable housing units have been identified in a number of local authority areas.

The media is full of reports that between 60,000 and 72,000 units are affected. Surely we need a definitive analysis of that figure before we can move towards a solution or get the parties to commit to participation. If we do not know the cost we cannot know the capacity of those responsible to bear the cost or what cost will fall to central Government.

The report of the expert committee seems to indicate that inadequate analysis has been done or, at least, there is not enough certainty about the problem. The Government needs to consider an additional public awareness campaign. Deputy Wallace made a valid point. If ten houses in an estate have a problem, the other 90 householders deserve, at least, to have their houses analysed. It is highly improbable that the material for ten houses would be brought from one quarry and the material for the others from elsewhere.

The executive summary of the report seems to suggest that not all the quarries identified have ceased to operate. We need an assurance from the Minister that action will be taken by his Department or by the relevant local authority to ensure that any quarry that is still operational is closed forthwith, so that there is no possibility of inappropriate material being removed from those sites.

We need to go back to the public and highlight the possibility that other properties may be affected, so that we can properly quantify the scale of the problem. That task will be complicated by the fact that it can take between two and nine years for pyritic heaves to commence. People who are sitting in properties today may discover tomorrow that their sitting room floor is beginning to bubble up in front of them or the walls of their living room are beginning to crack. We must confirm these matters as soon as possible.

I was also struck by the fact that we knew nothing of pyrite in Ireland until 2007, although it had been a problem in other jurisdictions, particularly in Canada. It is not surprising that we knew nothing about it because our schools of architecture and colleges of engineering did not include pyrite in any of their training courses. If the experts in the field were not being educated in this area, it is small wonder that the problem manifested itself unknown to anyone.

Are other problematic materials being used in construction of domestic residences or in the public infrastructure programme? Problems may arise from inadequate testing or monitoring and give rise to difficulties in the future. As I go around the country and my own county, I sometimes notice that while one road has been constructed and lasts for years, another with the same volume of traffic but constructed by another team or contractor in another part of the county disintegrates within two or three years. One suspects this is because materials of different qualities have been used. If we are to learn anything from this, it must be that we insist on proper testing and monitoring of construction materials.

We should see today's debate as one small step forward. The Minister must honour the clear commitment he gave to the House to have engagement over the next ten days. He must come back to the House after that engagement and confirm whether progress has been made. If progress is not made, the Minister will have the unanimous agreement of all Deputies to bring forward urgent legislation to force the parties to this process to make a contribution, by levy or some other method, so that the matter can be brought to a conclusion.

The people who are affected by this problem need to be able to rest easy in their beds and to know the Government will address the matter and insist on bringing about a resolution that involves the restoration of the houses to the standard they have a right to expect.

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