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

Would that it were so. Sadly, part of my reason for tabling the amendment is the bitter experience of homeowners who have found inconsistency in the Revenue's approach to these matters. It should be perfectly easy for the Revenue to know which estates and general areas are affected by pyrite and which are not. The Bill leaves too much scope for the Revenue to make onerous requests, which is not good for the Revenue or the homeowner. The issue is one's perspective on the issue. The Government is regarding it from the point of view of limiting exemptions, whereas I am regarding it from the point of view that anybody with a dwelling in the areas affected by pyrite has a valueless property.

The reason for the problem with the original legislation was that the Government was making it far too onerous for homeowners to prove they were affected by pyrite and the cost was prohibitive. While we have largely removed the under floor testing, which costs thousands of euro, it is not good enough. If a person's neighbour's house and hundreds of other houses in an area have pyrite damage, the chances are that his or her house will also have pyrite damage. If somebody from Tipperary, or somewhere there is no pyrite damage, chances his or her arm, the Revenue will tell him or her to move along. The symptoms are clear. There are engineers in these areas. It affects tens of thousands of houses. It is not huge. The presence of pyrite is an important barometer.

There is not enough consistency in the Revenue's approach to self-assessment. It is critical. There are properties where we know for a fact there is pyrite damage, but the damage is not bad enough yet. That is why we need the amendment, and I will press it. A category of people have their backs against the wall and they are in the worst category. We need to build a remediation process that gives people closure by providing certification or remediation. There is no other way of restoring the value of the properties. Until this happens, these people must be exempt from LPT.

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