CONTINUED inclusion of Clare from a remediation scheme for pyrite and mica affected homeowners equates to a “a definite, perpetuated and undeniable form of discrimination”.
Members of the Clare Pyrite Action Group have shared their concerns with Minister for Housing, Darragh O’Brien (FF) on the Defective Concrete Blocks Grant Scheme, announced on November 30th 2021.
Minister O’Brien met with members during a visit to Clare on August 27th promising to make a decision on their application to be added to the redress scheme “within weeks”. On December 6th, the Department challenged aspects of the submission from Clare County Council that was submitted on July 23rd. The local authority most submitted material to the Department on December 23rd.
Chairperson of the Clare Pyrite Action Group, Dr Martina Cleary wrote to Minister O’Brien expressing “the deep concern felt by impacted homeowners” in Clare. “With regard to the ongoing exclusion of County Clare from any existing grant or remediation scheme, we feel that there is a definite, perpetuated and undeniable form of discrimination being meted out to the people of this county. We are at a loss to understand why reports and evidence submitted by our consultant engineer, are deemed insufficient to warrant immediate inclusion and assistance,” she stated.
Issues of pyrite in Clare were raised in the Seanad in 2012 and in the Dáil by Deputy Joe Carey (FG) in 2018. Dr Cleary commented, “It is very apparent to all concerned, that we as homeowners and taxpayers of this same country, are being subjected to a prolonged and even calculated form of exclusion, compromising both our human and constitutional rights as Irish and European citizens. It is also highly unusual that any grant scheme, especially one of such financially historic proportions, would be determined, debated, ratified and signed into Irish legislation, based on an ongoing process (including consultative), determined by the geographically determined needs of only two counties out of twenty-six”.
Regarding the Defective Concrete Blocks Grant Scheme, the Crusheen woman said the sliding-scale “will have to be abolished”. She flagged a “considerable ambiguity” in point three on the burden of proof in the Building Condition Assessment and Damage Threshold clause, “it is not acceptable to leave people trapped indefinitely in properties that are damaged, but not damaged enough to access help, while also facing a non-transparent assessment procedure. A comparative equivalent would be, to tell citizens of this country to continue driving faulty cars, allowed into the market due to lack of regulation, up to and until the point at which they fail to function as they should. Or, to suffer the physical, psychological and ongoing financial impact of knowing that on any day their vehicle could fatally fail them”.
Unaccounted costs was another concern raised with no provision made for demolition, site clearance, replacement of damaged windows, doors, internal fixtures and fittings. There is also no funding for the full restoration of a fit-to live in dwelling. “This revised scheme is therefore not the 100% Redress voted for by the Dáil on June 16th. It doesn’t even come close to the principle of replacing ‘like for like’ within the previous scheme,” she said.
Clare’s absence from the consultative process on the working group which met from July to September and included representatives from Donegal and Mayo “blocked” homeowners “from any formal input into a consultative process on the largest remediation grant in the history of the State, to address this very problem”.
Dr Cleary stressed that evidence was available to warrant Clare’s inclusion and had been with the Department since last July. “The regulations within this new grant scheme, will impact the lives and livelihoods of hundreds (if not thousands) of people in County Clare for decades to come. The non-representative, non-accessible, non-transparent and non-consultative process, which has undoubtedly influenced the content and detail of what this new grant scheme will contain, has been deeply unjust”.
