Michelle Mulherin (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I would like to join Senators Ruane and O'Reilly in expressing my sympathies to the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy Zappone, on her great personal loss at this time.I wish to raise the issue of the pyrite and mica report that was published this day last week amidst the hurly-burly of changes in the Lower House and us getting a new Taoiseach. At that stage, I requested that the report be debated in this House because it is very important. I understand the Leader is proceeding to make that invitation to the Minister of State, Deputy English, who it has been confirmed will remain in his role and who has done a fine job. The report is long awaited and very welcome. It is the first official acknowledgment that the problem manifesting itself in blockwork in counties Mayo and Donegal is owing to pyrite and mica. The report and the engineering solutions offered are stark. With pyrite in blockwork, the most effective solution seems to be to remove the affected blockwork, which in some cases is the entire inner and outer sleeve of the walls of the house, and to rebuild. This is both a daunting and traumatic prospect for many people in Mayo and Donegal and a very expensive one. This brings me to asking the Leader to have the Minister for Finance in because apart from getting the solutions in place, they will also have to be paid for. We need a remediation scheme in order that the affected distressed homeowners can be financially assisted in respect of these solutions. We also need to debate how to get to a point whereby people who have carried out the works will get a certificate of structural soundness to enable them to sell and mortgage their houses. If a house has pyrite it is pretty much blacklisted. It is any homeowner's worst nightmare. For most people, it is their main asset and it is truly traumatic. As we look towards the next budget and the arrangements that will be made for how moneys available are divvied up, we need a scheme similar to that put in place on the east coast for people affected by pyrite heave. I ask that this is given due urgency. People are waiting in Mayo and Donegal.