Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

There were warnings in civil engineering literature in Britain 30 years ago with regard to pyrite. Some 25 years ago, there was also a detailed paper entitled "Cause and Significance of Heave at Llandough Hospital, Cardiff - A Case History of Ground Floor Heave due to Gypsum Growth". In 1992, there was an international conference of the construction industry and civil engineers in Bristol at which the implications of ground chemistry for construction were outlined in detailed submissions. Are we expected to believe that major Irish construction companies and suppliers of infill, including Irish Asphalt Limited, Roadstone Limited and Kilsaran Concrete, some of which are billionaire enterprises, had no knowledge of this situation? That does not stand up. Detailed testing should have been carried out, thus avoiding this problem. The reality is that the Building Regulation Advisory Board and the National Standards Authority of Ireland did not apprise themselves of the situation and insist on proper standards and testing.

What needs to be done is not complex. This is laid out clearly and succinctly in the letter sent by Pyrite Action to Members, including the immediate establishment of a comprehensive and systematic notification, testing and remediation scheme at no expense to home owners. There must be no tip tapping around individual homes as problems come to notice. There must be a comprehensive examination of all homes followed by the immediate removal of defective infill from all homes. The Minister's statement today that he agrees with the panel that it would be unreasonable to expect dwellings not exhibiting damage to be remediated simply because there is pyrite in the hardcore is incredible. The Minister also said this has been agreed by the High Court. I do not care what the High Court says. Where there is a risk of pyrite going into expansion mode, that pyrite must be removed. It is crazy to suggest one should wait until the house starts falling apart. If a bomb is found under one's home, should one leave it there hoping it will not explode and take care of the consequences later if it does? This suggestion should be rejected out of hand.

It is also recommended that independent and professional co-ordination of remedial works should be carried out, that there should be independent structural recertification and full compliance with building regulations, which is crucial. I will deal with the issue of funding later. The reality is that pyrite is only one awful symptom of the greed that drove the home construction industry in the ten years of the property bubble. The profiteering of that industry led to an entire generation of young working people being shackled with 40 year mortgages at unsustainable rates and afflicted with these problems. The reality is that building regulations were not written by the State or local authorities but by the profiteering construction bosses when they gathered to shower Fianna Fáil with funds at the infamous tent in Galway and subsequently the regulations were simply not implemented.

In the Dáil in the days of the bubble the parties then in opposition, such as the Fine Gael Party, were silent on what was going on in the construction industry. Look at the fire hazards in which thousands of people live. Priory Hall is only one horrendous example.

I urge all Members to read the letter sent yesterday by a Priory Hall resident to every Deputy and Minister on the heartbreak these people face. Stephanie Meehan writes that little did they know a year later they would still be asking questions and wondering when, if ever, they will get to go home and where their homes will be. This is the reality. They are the victims of this greed, just like those suffering because of pyrite.

I am appalled at the reliance of the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government on the corporate entities responsible for this scandal to put it back together. I will give a simple example.

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