*Cathal Crowe TD (FF) joined Minister O’Brien on a visit to the house of Mary and Seamus Hanley in Drumline six weeks ago. Photograph: Joe Buckley
A Clare TD has expressed confidence that a pyrite redress scheme will be operational for effected homeowners in the county ahead of Christmas.
Deputy Cathal Crowe (FF) has met with Minister for Housing, Darragh O’Brien (FF) to seek assurances that any changes emerging from the ongoing review of the scheme currently operational for counties Donegal and Mayo would be applied to Clare, once a scheme is launched.
Members of the Clare Pyrite Action Group have been concerned with the ongoing wait for an update from Minister O’Brien. Following a meeting with representatives of the Action Group, Minister O’Brien pledged to have further information “within weeks” but no correspondence has been forthcoming from the Department of Housing in six weeks.
Crowe stated, “Minister O’Brien assures me that the review of the redress scheme currently operational in Mayo and Donegal will very shortly conclude and any benefits that are accrued following the conclusion will also pass on to homeowners in Clare. I am confident that a redress scheme will be up and running in Clare before Christmas and I believe that they will benefit from the immense effort being made for improved redress, up to 100%, in Donegal and Mayo”.
Procrastination to a Clare scheme will “cause prolonged anguish” for homeowners and will prove costly to the taxpayer, the Meelick native believed. “It is vital that a redress scheme in Clare is approved in the quickest possible time – they took several years to devise and implement in other counties and we should learn from mistakes that have been made”.
Minister O’Brien has been requested by Deputy Crowe to initiate legal action against the quarries and block manufacturers who sold defective blocks in Co. Clare and beyond. “I think this action needs to be treated as a separate issue from the redress scheme. If the two are intertwined, it will most likely lead to further delays in redress. A separate legal process needs to get underway. Some of these companies continue to trade very profitably and it’s only right that they too should have to pay some compensation”.
