Clare Daly (Dublin North, United Left) | Oireachtas source

With respect, there is nothing new in the Minister's response. We debated the issues during an amendment I tabled to the Finance Bill last year. I have the transcript of the debate. The problem is there was an anomaly in the drafting of the statutory instrument in the legislation, which means that for somebody to get his or her exemption of hundreds of euro, he or she will have to spend thousands of euro. The Minister is on the record of the Dáil as saying that was never envisaged but he is almost on the record almost a year ago as saying that he had instructed his officials to deal with the matter, he was examining all the options and he expected an early resolution. The reality is the State is remediating properties, probably at a cost of approximately €40,000 per house because it accepts those properties have pyrite, even though an infill test was not done, but the other arm of the State, namely, Revenue, expects those very same people to get a test done at a cost to them of approximately €2,000 to get an exemption of perhaps €400 or €500 over the course of three years. It is completely unworkable. I do not ask the Minister to identify the problem - we know what that is - but could he outline whether the solution is any nearer than it was two years ago when I first asked him?

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