Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

In my request to raise a topical issue I included both the list of estates and the pyrite-damaged houses. I thank the Ceann Comhairle for selecting this matter for discussion. It is clear that the legislation produced before Christmas and the amending Bill produced after Christmas were hastily passed through the House and in advance of the list of exemptions or before we had an opportunity to talk to the pyrite remediation panel. It was like dynamite when the news came through last week that only about 5,000 houses, substantially below the number exempt from the household charge, would qualify for an exemption from property tax. In my constituency, for example, 17 estates were exempt from the household charge, but only two are exempt from property tax, one of which is a new estate. I estimate that of the 5,000 exempt on the unfinished estates list, only approximately 1,000 will qualify on the pyrite list, judging from what was said at a briefing we had with the Pyrite Resolution Board last week. That is fewer than 6,500 houses in a housing stock, depending on whose figures one takes, of anything from 1.6 million to 2 million units. The 2011 census indicated there were 2 million households. There have been varying discussions about that number, but irrespective of this, it is a tiny number. Most of the estates have remained inactive. The Minister claims that significant progress has been made, yet only €5 million has been expended nationally in making these estates safer. That must be the best value ever achieved.

I visited a number of estates in my constituency last weekend. Some of the residents have to pay management company fees, in addition to the imposition of a property tax. For example, in Beech Park in Leixlip there was no public lighting throughout the winter. In Newtown Hall, Maynooth, the fence around a very large construction site is on the ground and exposed to children. There are houses in Oughterany village, Kilcock that had to be boarded up by the people living there because they were being vandalised. There are holes in the road in the estate. In Primrose Gate in Celbridge the owners of 400 houses have to pay €250,000 in management company fees, yet the residents do not receive services such as street lighting or maintenance works. They have to pay for the sewerage pump station. If there is a fault, they have to call out a private contractor. They also do not receive council services. One must question exactly what they will get in paying property tax. That is what they are questioning.

There must be a revision of the list, as it is inadequate and fails to take account of significant issues such as management companies in unfinished estates.

The number of pyrite-damaged houses that will qualify is limited to approximately 1,000 of the estimated 10,000 houses that were identified in the pyrite panel report. There may well be visible pyrite in some of these houses but the heave has not reached the level that will qualify them for remediation so they will not be exempted. The pyrite action group, which is voluntary, received many calls asking it to clarify what qualifies. It appears that only in cases where houses are seriously damaged will they qualify for an exemption but who in their right mind would buy a house in the full knowledge that pyrite is present? The houses are valueless. That point was to have been considered.

I met a couple of people last week who had paid to have their homes remediated. They took out extra mortgages to do that but they will get no relief from the remediation board and neither will they be entitled to any exemption. Some of those people would also have paid high stamp duty. The issue of natural justice has been lost in all of this. Putting aside the rights and wrongs of the property tax these are serious issues in their own right that probably could have been teased out in a more thoughtful way had we had more time when the legislation was going through the House.

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