Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for facilitating this important Topical Issue debate. I also thank the Minister. He has had a busy day and I appreciate that he is in the Chamber tonight during one of the final speaking slots of this week in Dáil Éireann. I hugely appreciate his attendance to deal with this matter.

Many Clare families have pyrite in their homes. Those houses are cracked and ready to fall in. Many of them are watching proceedings to hear the matter addressed on the floor on the Dáil. They are hoping for positive responses.

Many of us were outside three weeks ago when a cohort of people arrived on North Wall Quay. Many of them were from counties Donegal and Mayo. There was a smaller contingent from my own county of Clare. They were protesting about the presence of pyrite in their homes and the redress scheme that has been in place for the past 14 months or so to address it in counties Donegal and Mayo. In particular, they were highlighting some of the deficiencies in the redress scheme. We heard earlier this week that homeowners in Donegal and Mayo who are participating in that redress scheme will now benefit from six years of an exemption from paying local property tax. It is not much in the greater scheme of things but every little bit counts. It is wrong to take money from these families when they are hard pressed and their houses are, effectively, falling in around them. Thousands of protestors arrived from Donegal and Mayo. I read in the media that 45 buses came from Donegal alone. There was also a contingent from Clare.

An expert group in 2016 estimated that 5,000 houses in Ireland are affected by pyrite. That did not factor in what is emerging in County Clare. There is a group run by Dr. Martina Cleary with 52 homeowners affiliated to it. We estimate there are several hundred homes, possibly including 34 council houses, in Clare with pyrite in them, all structurally defective and at risk of serious damage or falling down. It is estimated that 1,000 council houses nationally are similarly affected and that the redress could cost anything up to €2.4 billion. That is stark.

Under the current regime, the State pays 90% of the remedial works but there is a need to move quickly to a 100% model. I noted during a previous Topical Issue debate an undertaking that the review group looking at the redress scheme at the moment will report back by the end of the month. There is a major role for quarries to play. Cassidy Brothers in Donegal are culpable of selling blocks en masseto house builders throughout Donegal. Those blocks are now crumbling. In County Clare, we too have a quarry that is still trading healthily. I do not think it has ever had a bad day of trading, not even during the recession. It has been experiencing a boom for a long time. There has to be a major role for those quarry operators when redress is fully paid out.

Those are my questions. I will come in again with some supplementary remarks. The people of Clare do not want to be the poor relations who are left without any redress. If an initiative is under way in counties Donegal and Mayo whereby those affected by pyrite will not pay local property tax this year or for five subsequent years, I do not see why Clare homeowners should lose out. I ask the Minister for Finance to look favourably on my request that a similar scheme of exemption would operate for those in County Clare who have confirmed pyrite in their homes.

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