Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Technical Group and Deputy Catherine Murphy for allowing me and my Labour Party colleagues to say a few words. I welcomed the publication of the report of the pyrite panel last June. Astonishingly, this report was the first comprehensive response to the worst construction disaster to occur since the foundation of the State and which may have affected tens of thousands of home owners in north and west Dublin and across the mid-Leinster region. I have raised this appalling issue countless times in this Chamber, particularly with former taoisigh Mr. Bertie Ahern and Mr. Brian Cowen and the former Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Mr. John Gormley. I was almost blue in the face asking Mr. Gormley to take responsibility for this appalling crisis. I first learned of the problem in July 2007 when Drynam Hall, Clongriffin and The Coast estates in my constituency reported appalling damage to homes.

In my initial analysis of the pyrite report, I concluded it provided a useful technical analysis of the pyrite disaster as it unfolded since 2007. In the report, it was estimated that more than 12,250 ground floor dwellings in 74 estates across the country could be contaminated by pyrite. Of these, approximately 850 have made a claim with a guarantee provider, and approximately 1,100 have been remediated or are in the process of being remediated, on 12 estates. I remain convinced and have told the Minister, Deputy Hogan, several times in the Dáil that these estimates may be too conservative given the estimates that I received from industry sources in 2007 and 2008. Disastrously, up to 60,000 housing units may be affected. One of the most striking points in the report is that abnormal cracking in dwellings was being investigated as early as 2005, yet, seven years later, many residents are still left suffering and in limbo.

For example, I heard a few days ago that houses in another large estate in my constituency, Belmayne, might be contaminated.

The panel's report contains 24 key recommendations. However, as the Pyrite Action Group has stated, the report is only a "partial solution to the pyrite crisis". A large stumbling block in achieving a resolution has been the appalling lack of engagement by many stakeholders, particularly the construction, quarrying and insurance industries and the banking sector, as noted in the report. I was attending a meeting and did not have a chance to listen to the start of the debate, but I understand the Minister stated he was moving towards what he would consider to be a full and satisfactory engagement with these stakeholders in a resolution process. I learned from my colleague, Deputy Hannigan, that the Minister is proceeding with recommendation No. 14 on the establishment of a resolution board, which would be welcome.

The Minister promised repeatedly earlier this year that, if there was no action from the stakeholders by 30 September, he would make them take action, force a resolution, levy them or do whatever else was necessary. Must he introduce further legislation or statutory instruments to ensure that this occurs? Will the Government provide upfront funding for a proposed remediation scheme to reflect the State's failings in the matter?

When this horrible situation developed in summer 2007, I was directed to consider the province of Quebec in Canada, which had faced this disaster in the late 1990s and early part of this century. I noted that, after two or two and a half years, its Government had spent €70 million Canadian dollars and the federal Government in Ottawa had put up additional funding to resolve the situation. Many new estates along the Montreal shoreline had been affected by disastrously high levels of pyrite in their infill. This approach should be examined and I commend my Labour colleagues on asking that similar action be taken in Ireland. The Minister, Deputy Hogan, might bring it to the attention of the Ministers for Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputies Noonan and Howlin, respectively.

This situation reflects the lack of regulation of quarries and the abject failure of local authorities to enforce building regulations. We are well past the Minister's 30 September deadline.

Recommendation No. 2 in section 8.4 of the report proposes a system for clarifying affected housing of red, amber and green, wherein red is a house that requires immediate remediation, amber denotes a house that requires ongoing monitoring and green denotes a house that requires no further action. Some 850 pyrite-affected homes have been designated red and in need of urgent remediation, but the owners of pyrite-affected homes, including the outstanding Pyrite Action Group and Lusk village action group, which regularly brief me, other Deputies and householders in my constituency, strongly believe that all homes with reactive pyrite must be remediated.

People bought their homes in good faith. They believed they were buying decent products in which they could live. A house is the largest purchase anyone can make. Those people were sold grossly defective products. It is the Minister's job to ensure they will have the same quality housing as those of us who have not needed to deal with this plague. As Deputy Boyd Barrett stated, they should not be expected to live in crumbling and potentially dangerous homes with only an expectation of remediation works if they have been designated in the red category. How will the definition of "significant damage" referred to in the red and amber designations be estimated? Will a system be put in place in the proposed amber category, for example, to conduct the monitoring on an ongoing basis and how will this be paid for?

Previously, I asked the Minister to implement recommendation No. 13, which would exempt pyrite-affected homes from any proposed property tax until such time as they were remediated and fully certified. Will the Minister confirm whether he intends to make this case to the Minister for Finance and his Government colleagues? I ask my Labour colleagues to make the case strongly. We are discussing unfinished houses on unfinished estates. In fact, they have not even been started. The idea of imposing a property tax on them is outrageous.

A key concern of home owners affected by pyrite is the review of structural guarantee policies, as laid out in recommendation No. 22. Home owners believe the structural warranty provider must be independent of developers or any person or company involved in the construction of the homes. The Lusk village working group has rightly described the HomeBond model as "fundamentally flawed", as its core relationship is between HomeBond, its members and the developers. Residents believe that HomeBond is basing applications for pyrite damage on the basis of the assessment of the developers-builders who built the homes in the first place and used the disgraceful infill, and not on an independent and transparent invigilation of the house in question. I am sure the Minister will agree that the role of HomeBond in the pyrite catastrophe has been deplorable. Residents rightly have little or no faith in the competency of that organisation to manage the remediation or any other part of the resolution process.

I have also raised the disgraceful failure of HomeBond to appear before the Oireachtas environment committee. The Minister responded to my parliamentary question on this matter last week. My colleague, Deputy McCarthy, is the committee's chairman. He should call HomeBond to attend and ensure that it does.

In a reply to me in a previous debate, the Minister, Deputy Hogan, mentioned the National Standards Authority of Ireland, NSAI's examination of pyrite testing standards and the development of a remediation method statement for the certification of pyrite-affected homes. The establishment of both standards is key to enabling householders to sell their houses if, like any of us might do, they wish to move and give a good product to the householder who moves in after them.

I hope the Minister will report to the Dáil on the recent Fingal consultation on quarries, a matter I raised with him in a previous debate. Specifically, will he report on notice 216A relating to the quarry at Bay Lane, Kilshane, Dublin 11? Having read the report, the council's planners gave the quarry planning approval, but did not indicate that additional work needed to be done. What about the product it was producing? It is allegedly the source of much of the problem under discussion.

Recommendation No. 14 on a resolution process is in train, but the owners of pyrite-affected homes have set out a clear and reasonable series of measures that they believe must be adopted to resolve the crisis. The north fringe of Dublin city should be an area of the highest quality housing and commercial development, an asset to our city and a place where people will visit. It is close to the coast and a beautiful area with a high value and many amenities. We want to finish the north fringe to the highest standards. The Minister can help us in that regard.

The home owners' demands include the immediate establishment of a comprehensive notification, testing and remediation scheme to identify and invigilate the full extent of the pyrite problem, the immediate remediation of all pyrite-affected homes, the undertaking of remedial works in co-ordinated blocks of work programmes rather than in a piecemeal ad hocfashion, the independent and professional co-ordination of remedial works, an independent structural recertification process, the provision of upfront funding and a retrospective waiver of the household charge and forthcoming property taxes.

Will the Minister address the position of pyrite-affected householders who are buying their homes through an affordable housing scheme, but who are being treated in the same way as fully private home buyers, given the fact the local authority is the vendor? It is astonishing that a number of local authorities bought houses suffering pyrite problems without having carried out basic certification works on quarries or the inspection of homes. The Minister's building regulations should go much further.

Aside from the banking disaster consequent on the blanket bank guarantee of September 2008, which I am delighted the Labour Party voted against, the pyrite contamination of a large proportion of the yearly housing bubble output from approximately 2002 to 2008 is perhaps the greatest economic disaster in the history of Ireland since Independence. In my constituency, quarry owners, developers and builders bear the primary responsibility, but a grave responsibility also attaches to Dublin City Council, Fingal County Council and the State. Unlike the governments of Quebec and Canada, this Government, like the former Minister, Mr. John Gormley, and the Fianna Fáil-Green Government, has failed to discharge its responsibility to our constituents, who have suffered so disgracefully. I hope today will be the starting point of a different course of action that will resolve the crisis.

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