Pyrite payout ‘not legally enforceable’

The Department of the Environment said it is powerless to legally enforce home insurance companies to pay compensation to households structurally damaged by pyrite contamination.

One company, Homebond, has insisted it is not legally obliged to engage with pyrite-related claims because the responsibility lies with the quarries that provided the in-fill materials.

But chairman of the Oireachtas Environment Committee, Ciarán Lynch, said this was based on a “legal opinion” and not a “legal judgment”, and should be decided in court.