Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I support amendment No. 49. Some of us engaged with the Pyrite Resolution Board for a period prior to the remediation scheme being put in place. Essentially, the object of the exercise was not to force people to incur needless expense. If a condition survey had been carried out and it was obvious that bits of a house were literally falling down on top of people, then it was not necessary for every house in an estate to go through an assessment. A sensible approach was to be taken. People who are affected by pyrite are in a very stressful situation because they see their house literally disintegrate. Some might not yet be in category two. While the board might wish to group houses together, I am aware of one housing estate where three or four houses require urgent remediation but other houses are not at that stage yet. It would be wrong if one side of Government were to take one approach and another side of Government were to take a punitive approach in terms of property tax relief. The Government’s approach must be consistent.

If one lives in a housing estate with pyrite, there is a blight on the estate and the houses are valueless in that nobody will want to buy them until the remediation has taken place. It is important that we do not put further pressure on people and that we do not make them jump through hoops or expend large amounts of money that might not be necessary. The Pyrite Remediation Board will not require every house to do a core test. We have been told that if one house in an estate has pyrite and the house next door looks like it has similar damage, the board will not require each and every house to carry out a test. There must be a relationship between the pyrite remediation scheme and the corresponding measure on pyrite in the Finance Bill. For that reason I support Deputy Clare Daly’s amendment, which I hope she will put to a vote if the Minister does not accept it. I hope sense prevails as the situation is difficult enough for people.

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