Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)
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Early last Saturday I flew across the Dublin north fringe region, returning from Galway with Aer Arann. From the air, the starkness of the construction closedown in the area is immediately visible. Large cleared areas of fields are marked out with roads and boundary fences but all activity has ceased effectively since early last autumn.

Vital public transport, shopping, health, security and community services remain to be provided for the major districts of the north fringe, such as The Coast, Stapolin, Clongriffin, Beaupark and Belmayne. The long promised new DART station for Baldoyle-Clongriffin has not been delivered and new residents now hope the latest target date of October 2009 will prove to be accurate. In the south of Belmayne, construction seems to have stopped completely over a vast area of apartments. From Clare Hall Avenue, the vast new estate looks uncared for and unfinished.

In the same district four months ago, local residents received the shocking news that the proposed new town square at Belmayne-Clare Hall was not going to proceed as planned. The key Belmayne developers, Stanley Holdings, pulled out of the purchase and development of the 9.3 hectare town square site, agreed under a section 183 agreement with Dublin City Council in August 2006. The Belmayne town square was to be a centrepiece of the north fringe development, linked by a new long urban boulevard to Clongriffin and Stapolin town centre in the east.

The astonishing debacle of the Belmayne town centre is typical of the poor planning and management of the new north fringe by Dublin City Council and Fingal County Council. More than seven years ago, I proposed the local informal stakeholders' body, the North Fringe Forum, which tries to invigilate the vast new north fringe development. The forum is concerned with a development of potentially 25,000 to 30,000 housing units and ancillary commercial development which is easily the largest such development in the history of the State.

However, unlike much smaller areas like Adamstown, Mansfield and Balgaddy, the north fringe is not a strategic development zone. I call on the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy John Gormley, to give the north fringe strategic development zone status without further delay. Only by placing the north fringe on a statutory SDZ basis and insisting that the Dublin City and Fingal county managers establish a clear five to seven-year scoping and planning timetable can the urgent needs of existing new residents be met and a full sustainable development plan activated for this crucially important new urban quarter of Dublin City and Fingal County.

The Commercial Court in Clonskeagh is currently hearing an action by Menolly Homes, Mansfield Developments and associated companies against three companies in the Lagan Group, including Irish Asphalt, the owners of the Bay Lane quarry in Blanchardstown, Dublin 15. The matter is now sub judice and the judgment will have immense consequences for the young constituents I represent in several areas of the north fringe. The issue at stake relates to allegations of serious pyrite contamination of infill used in housing construction in Clongriffin, The Coast, Drynam Hall, and in several other areas of north and west Dublin and east Leinster.

I am disappointed the Minister, Deputy Gormley, is not present, although I acknowledge the good attributes of the Minister of State, Deputy Moloney. For almost two years I have pleaded with the Minister to establish a task force on pyrite contamination of buildings erected during the Celtic tiger period, similar to action taken by the government of Québec province in Canada. I have asked him perhaps 20 times in this House to close Bay Lane quarry immediately and to carry out a full traceability audit of the two million tonnes of infill material taken from it. We have traced only 5% of it. I have asked him repeatedly to invigilate all the other quarries in Leinster for possible pyrite contamination. Why has the Minister and Leader of the Green Party stood helplessly on the sidelines while young householders, whose homes are literally coming apart, are left to fend for themselves? During this time companies such as Killoe Developments refused to take calls for months on end.

Surely this is another great betrayal by the Green Party and a dereliction of duty by the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government. It is now abundantly clear that the building regulations were greatly, and deliberately, weakened by this 12-year-old Government. We have a so-called self-regulatory system. In autumn 2007, the Minister, Deputy Gormley, tried to close the stable door when the horse was clearly gone, with his letter to local authorities on regulatory responsibility. The key responsibility is now his alone. I appeal to him, for the umpteenth time, to establish an SDZ for the north fringe and a task force on pyrites.

John Moloney (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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I apologise for the absence of the Minister, Deputy Gormley, who could not attend.

Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)
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He is never here when we are here.

Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)
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He has gone AWOL.

John Moloney (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy will be aware that certain matters relating to the problems which have arisen in relation to the use of pyrite as infill are currently the subject of proceedings before the Commercial Court.

The Planning and Development Act 2000 provides that the Government may, by order, when so proposed by the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, designate one or more sites for the establishment of a strategic development zone to facilitate development deemed to be of economic or social importance to the State.

The benefit of SDZ designation is the co-ordinated planning and development of undeveloped sites, with a good degree of certainty on the exact type and nature of development, following the determination by An Bord Pleanála of a planning scheme, which is prepared by the nominated development agency. However, the Minister does not believe a strategic development zone would be the appropriate vehicle to deliver on existing development, such as that at the Dublin north fringe, because there is already an existing and formally adopted framework plan applying to that area. This plan has guided considerable development in recent years and continues to be the basis against which planning permissions and all ancillary developments are considered. Moreover, the Deputy will be aware that a broad-based north fringe cross-authority-agency forum is also in place to monitor progress in this area.

The Minister has already had occasion to outline to the House initiatives which have been taken by Fingal County Council, by his Department and by the National Standards Authority of Ireland following from the problems which have occurred regarding pyrite in certain developments. When the issue of pyrite arose and following an intervention from the Department, the NSAI proceeded to publish a new amended standard recommendation on the use of aggregates as infill for civil engineering and road construction work. The new standard recommendation is intended to address the quality standards of new homes and buildings in so far as problems relating to pyrite are concerned. The Department has now incorporated this NSAI standard recommendation into the relevant technical guidance document associated with Part C of the building regulations dealing with site preparation and resistance to moisture. The Department has also notified all key stakeholders of the provisions of the amended TGD-C. In addition, the Minister is aware that HomeBond has included the amended NSAI standard recommendation in their published sixth edition of the House Building Manual.

The Minister, Deputy Gormley is satisfied that these measures represent an appropriate response and there are no proposals to establish a task force or to order a traceability audit of materials in relation to this matter.

The fact remains that problems arising between homeowners and their builders are matters for resolution between the parties concerned — the building owner, the relevant developer and the builder's insurer. Where the construction of a building is the subject of a contract between the client and the builder, enforcement is a civil matter.