Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)
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Just after this Dáil completed its first sitting in July, the news about the pyrite infill disaster broke in north County Dublin. Residents in Drynam Hall in Kinsealy were informed by Menolly Homes that many households would have to be rehoused for ten or 12 weeks while the ground floor of homes with a high content of pyrite infill were excavated and removed down to a depth of 3 m.

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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I am not briefed with the reply to the Deputy's statement.

Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)
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Could the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Gormley, come into the House?

John O'Donoghue (Kerry South, Ceann Comhairle)
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The Deputy put down his Adjournment notice and it was granted. If the Deputy wishes to wait we can adjourn for a short time to give the Minister the opportunity to arrive.

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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The Minister may be on his bike somewhere.

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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The Minister is in the precincts of the House.

John O'Donoghue (Kerry South, Ceann Comhairle)
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We will adjourn for ten minutes if the Deputy so wishes.

Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)
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We have been the victim of a severe discourtesy by the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government who is not practising what he preached when he was in opposition.

Just after the Dáil completed its first sitting in July the news about the pyrite infill disaster broke in north County Dublin. Residents in Drynam Hall in Kinsealy were informed by Menolly Homes that many households would have to be rehoused for up to ten or 12 weeks while the ground floor of homes with a high content of pyrite infill were excavated and removed down to a depth of 3 m.

A few weeks later my new constituents in Menolly Homes developments at The Coast estate in Baldoyle and in Beauparc, Clongriffin were devastated to learn that their homes would also have to be tested to discover if a similar problem was emerging from flooring infill also used at those locations. Since then I have had a steady stream of telephone calls and e-mails from other areas of north Dublin and Meath from householders who are intensely anxious to know if a defective underfloor infill was also used in their estates.

Media reports indicate that at least eight builders other than Menolly Homes have reported the problem to Homebond and that houses at the vast Castlecurragh Estate in Dublin 15 built by Shannon Homes have also tested positive for a high pyrite infill content. At a recent meeting of the North Fringe Forum, a consultative group on the huge urban region being built from Baldoyle to Dublin Airport, the unfolding construction problem was described as a catastrophe. Young householders and mortgage payers are dismayed at this incredible development and there is extreme anxiety at the reconstruction and insurance implications of the news from Menollys.

Pyrite or iron pyrite was formerly known as "fool's gold" because of its appearance and is an iron sulphide which expands if it is exposed to air or water. It reacts with oxygen and water to form sulphuric acid. I was informed in July that the quarry which supplied the defective infill is located near Ballycoolin in Dublin 15 and is owned by the Irish Asphalt division of the Lagan Group.

I have learned that between early 2003 and February 2007, approximately 2 million tonnes of infill stone was produced by this suspect quarry with a high pyrite content of 1% to 3%. Yet due to the total inaction of the Minister, Deputy Gormley, and his Department, only 100,000 tonnes, or 5%, has so far been traced, to the Menolly sites. It has been put to me that the other defective infill was used in perhaps thousands of new homes in north and west Dublin, Meath and Leinster. It is alleged that this infill was also used in many key infrastructural projects and it is known, for example, that the Lagan Construction Group was involved in the construction of projects like the Dublin Port tunnel. I am also informed that at least three other quarries in the Leinster region have a high pyrite content.

I reported to the 29th Dáil that the Dublin-Fingal north fringe is facing many key infrastructural deficiencies including a lack of public transport, schools, health centres, child care and youth facilities and Garda stations due to terrible developer-led planning aided and abetted by successive Fianna Fáil-PD Governments. The last thing that the area needed was this appalling news about pyrite infill. In the many contacts I have had with the Department, with city manager, John Tierney, and county manager, David O'Connor, on this matter, I am repeatedly told that the implementation of the building regulations is "largely self-regulatory." Likewise the invigilation of planning permissions, often for vast new urban projects, is paltry or non-existent.

I now call on the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government and the Fingal and Dublin county managers to address their responsibilities which they have shamefully shirked in the past. The Minister, Deputy Gormley, must immediately establish a ministerial task force with the Fingal County and Dublin city managers to, first, carry out a full traceability audit of all building sites supplied by the Irish Asphalt quarry near Blanchardstown; second, investigate the location of any other quarries with a high pyrite content and arrange a traceability audit of each of them; third, in conjunction with the National Standards Authority for Ireland set up a national pyrite investigation and monitoring agency to guarantee the handback of fully repaired and rebuilt homes to householders; and, fourth, liaise closely with the governments of Quebec and Ontario in Canada which have faced a similar pyrite disaster and have developed protocols for compulsory chemical analysis of all construction infill and overseen appropriate compensation mechanisms for affected householders and public bodies. On the last request I refer the Minister to the valuable publication, Pyrite and Your Home by the Association Des Consommateurs Pour La Qualite Dans La Construction in Quebec. Hundreds of my constituents and perhaps thousands of others living in newly built estates and people who have built large infrastructural projects want the Minister to restore the status quo, to ensure houses and infrastructural projects are rebuilt if necessary and to ensure people are fully compensated, not just for the damage done to properties for which they are paying through the nose, but for the significant inconvenience and stress caused to them. I urge the Minister to take immediate action on the matter.

John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)
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I thank Deputy Broughan for raising this matter and assure him no discourtesy was intended.

Pyrite is a mineral found in broken stone that oxidizes upon contact with moisture and oxygen to produce sulphuric acid. The sulphuric acid causes the broken stone to swell, which in turn causes the floor slabs in buildings to lift and crack. Laboratory tests have found that pyrite exists in the infill stone material used beneath the houses in a number of housing estates in the Dublin-North fringe. This mineral has the effect of making the infill stone defective.

I understand from Fingal County Council that the builders or developers of the houses in question have undertaken tests and other investigations to establish the extent of the houses affected. I further understand that HomeBond, the national house building guarantee company, a private company which provides a ten year structural guarantee for new houses, of which the builders concerned are members, have also carried out investigations.

The national building regulations set out the legal requirements for the construction of new buildings, including houses, and extensions to and material alterations of existing buildings. The related technical guidance documents, TGDs, provide technical guidance on how to comply with the regulations.

For example, Part C and TGD-C set the legal requirements and technical guidance for site preparation and resistance to moisture. Regulation C3 stipulates:

The floors, walls and roof of a building shall be so designed and constructed as to prevent the passage of moisture to the inside of the building or damage to the fabric of the building.

TGD-C also requires:

The hardcore bed should be at least 150 mm thick and should be of broken stones, broken brick or similar suitable material well compacted and clean and free from matter liable to cause damage to the concrete.

Under the provisions of the Building Control Act 1990, responsibility for compliance with the building regulations rests with the builder and the owner of a building.

Enforcement is a matter for the local building control authorities which are empowered to carry out inspections and initiate enforcement proceedings, when considered necessary. In this regard, I understand that the local building control authority, Fingal County Council, has been in direct contact with the builders and the quarry concerned to ascertain the full extent of the problem and to ensure there is no further use of this material for house building.

Having consulted the statutory building regulations advisory body on the matter, the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, on 16 August 2007, issued a circular letter, BC 6/2007, to each county manager and local building control authority with a view to bringing the issue to their notice and requesting their co-operation in the enforcement of the relevant requirements. This circular letter also brings to their attention a notice issued by Fingal County Council on 26 July 2007 on the matter.

I also understand that the National Standards Authority of Ireland is giving urgent consideration to publication of additional guidance on the issue of pyrite. This will, by way of a new national standard, amend an existing standard or a standard recommendation, whichever is considered most appropriate. It is my intention to adopt any recommendation of the NSAI in this regard, when available, in the relevant technical guidance document to the building regulations.

The Deputy suggested that a ministerial task force be set up to carry out a full traceability audit and establish a national pyrite investigation and monitoring agency. The actions I have outlined are designed to avoid any recurrence of the problem which has arisen in Fingal. Compensation is a matter between a homeowner, the relevant developer and the builder's insurer, whether that is HomeBond or another insurer. Consequently, the Minister has no function in this regard.

John O'Donoghue (Kerry South, Ceann Comhairle)
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I accept fully the Minister did not intend any discourtesy to Deputy Broughan or the House. However, he will appreciate that it is incumbent on me, as Ceann Comhairle, to ensure that Members' rights are jealously guarded. Among those rights is the right to raise a matter on the Adjournment and to have a Minister or his or her representative present. It is incumbent on the Minister to ensure that he or a representative is present. I must request that this be adhered to across all Departments.