Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

All right.

Deputy Wallace made the point that if some houses in a housing estate are affected by pyrite then the whole estate should be exempted because the same conditions would reveal right through the estate. That is also a matter for the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government to decide. Some briefing notes I have seen from that Department would suggest that different consignments of gravel from different sources were used in building in different parts of estates and the condition would not apply throughout the estate. The Department also made the point that the weather conditions at the point of pouring the foundations would have made a difference in many estates. I am not on top of the technical issues, but this is the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government advice.

I am about to enact, with the help of the House, an amendment to exempt pyrite-damaged houses and the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government would have to operate to that mandate. The manner in which the Department makes the exemptions will be a matter for it, but the guidelines are clear. Whether that means exempting whole estates or portions of the estates, that will be a matter for the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government.

That Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government, from the flat-rate charge which it was responsible for collecting, has exempted many ghost estates and quite a good many estates around the country. That Department will follow the same procedure but the decision will be for that Department in accordance with the Act.

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