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.

He told Environment officials that the State should take action against the company to “smoke out” its legal advice.

The Cork South Central TD was addressing members of the Department’s Pyrite Panel, made up of officials who are examining the extent of the problem and how it can be dealt with.

The committee yesterday heard that more than 12,000 homes in 74 unnamed estates could be contaminated with material from five quarries.

It is used in foundations, and expands and causes cracks and crevices in walls.

Chairman of the pyrite panel, Brendan Tuohy, said 150 homes need to be dealt with immediately.

He said any case against Homebond would have to be taken by individuals and not the State because it does not have the powers to do so.

And he said court action would not deliver quickly enough for houses that need to be fixed quickly.

“One of the problems we have as a society is that we run first to the courts. I would much rather see them getting in and doing what they are capable of doing,” he said.

“If we want things to happen quickly, our view is that is the way. I would much prefer to see action quickly and to see it happen now and see the houses repaired,” he told the committee.

Mr Touhy said when the “legitimate government and parliament of the day ask a specific organisation to do something, I think they have to give serious consideration to that”.

“There is more than a legal responsibility, there are also moral responsibilities.”

Fianna Fáil’s Barry Cowen said the Government should examine legislation to provide for a class action taken by home owners.