Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

These amendments are crucially important. Does the Minister think that anybody would profess to have pyrite or mica were they not almost certain they had it in their homes? People do not make up these stories. They do not want to have pyrite or mica. We have asked for years for them to be exempt from property tax because the properties - I will speak for those in County Mayo - were worth zero. How, therefore, can one have a property tax based on value for those homes? Time and time again we have been refused. The Revenue Commissioners are doing their jobs properly but they did not have permission to give the exemption under that.

It was totally wrong that these people were watching their houses falling down, and at the same time they had to pay the property tax on them. Those people at a very minimum need to be reimbursed but we cannot ask them to pay €6,000 upfront. Many of the people trying to get the test done at the moment are scrambling to get the money from credit unions or they are borrowing from family members and others just so they can apply for the scheme.

It is vitally important that we do not leave here tonight without having this fixed. I do not like what I am hearing coming from people in Mayo at the meetings on the pyrite situation with the Minister. Even the smallest of issues are not being resolved at this stage and we are in the middle of July. The report is due back at the end of the month. This is one issue on which the Minister can provide clarity. I refer to a self-assessment exemption to be applied retrospectively so that people get reimbursed for the tax.

While I am speaking to the Minister, Mayo County Council does not have any money to rehouse the people who have watched their homes crumbling-----

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