*Seamus & Mary Hanley show the extent of the pyrite damage to their home. Photograph: Joe Buckley
“Every avenue” will be utilised by the Minister for Housing to pursue companies shown to have sold defective concrete blocks which has led to a devastating pyrite problem in Co Clare for hundreds of homeowners.
Homeowners in Clare with the presence of pyrite have damage varying from vertical and horizontal cracks to crumbling blocks and looming demolition. Many of these individuals have had to carry out testing costing up to €10,000 to identify the exact nature of the deleterious materials in their home.
Speaking in Co Clare on Friday, Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Darragh O’Brien (FF) detailed his ambition to pursue companies found to have been selling defective concrete blocks which has to the devastation.
Minister O’Brien stated, “Those responsible, I’m going to use every avenue I have open to me to pursue them and I’ve charged the Attorney General with that work and to come back to me to see what we can do legally, I said that publicly a number of weeks ago and I take the opportunity here in Clare to do that again, my first priority is to give certainty to people that their homes will be made good but this is a significant expense for the exchequer and there have been in some instances where builders have paid in, very few, but in some instances there have been. We’re going to look at every legal avenue available to us to go after those who are responsible for the scourge that is pyrite in the block and other construction defects which I’m working on too”.
Newmarket-on-Fergus homeowner, Joe O’Donnell questioned the Minister on what he was going to do with the “culprits in all of this”. He said that the blocks in their family home came from “the biggest company in Ireland” who continue to have healthy finances.
In response to this, Minister O’Brien said, “If you look at the legislation which goes right back to 2012, within the legislation that this scheme has come from, it does give the State the ability to go back and seek recompense and be able to get compensation and for those responsible to pay in. We’re pursuing that, I haven’t got the report back from the Attorney General, the first bill I produced on pyrite was on this very thing and extending the limitations so we could go back and seek recompense. In a couple of instances, builders have remediated themselves, I know of schemes where that has been done, I’m not going to leave any stone unturned”.
