*Photograph: Joe Buckley
CLARE IS suspected to be one of the worst affected counties in the country when it comes to pyrite.
350 local authority homes are affected by pyrite, a briefing between Clare County Council and members of the Clare Pyrite Action Group outlined in February while in the past week a spokesperson for the Council said up to 620 homes in Clare may be affected.
Research from the Pyrite Action Group has identified 1,000 homes, 18 affected estates, eight public buildings, and 350 of Clare County Council’s owned stock, which are showing signs that they were built with pyrite or other defective materials.
In an application for inclusion in the redress scheme last July, a figure of 53 properties in Clare were identified to date as affected or potentially affected by pyrite, five of which were in three different local authority built estates.
Explaining how the figure rose from 53 to 350, a Council spokesperson told The Clare Echo, “On the basis that all dwellings within an estate are likely to be constructed at the same time using the same materials, it is reasonable to assume that potentially the entire estate could be affected. Applying this rationale to the properties identified above gives rise to the estimate of 350. This approach to estimating the potential scale of the problem was adopted in both Donegal and Mayo and the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage have accepted that it is not possible to be definitive in this regard and that any estimates at this time may be subject to change”.
Delays have been experienced in the Council producing evidence of pyrite for its own stock. “The process of conclusively proving the presence of pyrite takes time with the process is ongoing; we anticipate a report with laboratory results will be available in the coming weeks,” the spokesperson stated.
Core testing of local authority houses should have commenced much sooner, Dr Martina Cleary, Chairperson of the Pyrite Action Group said. Issues such as Watery Rd in Ennis had been mooted for some time before the matter was taken on board, up to 34 houses there alone are part of the Clare figure.
