Housing Minister refuses to commit to 100% redress for Pyrite scandal victims 

Sharon Doneghy and her daughter Chloe from Buncrana, Co  Donegal, at the protest in Dublin in June. File picture: Gareth Chaney/ Collins

The Housing Minister has refused to commit to 100% redress for those affected by the Pyrite scandal.

Darragh O'Brien visited Clare on Friday where he held what was described as a "good" meeting with the Pyrite Action Group. 

The Department of Housing believes homeowners should have to pay 10% of costs, with a recent position paper deeming this contribution "appropriate".

The Housing Minister had set up a pyrite/mica working group in June after meeting some of the thousands of homeowners who protested in Dublin calling for adequate Government support.

Mr O'Brien refused to be drawn on redress when the 100% figure was put to him but said there was no budgetary issue regarding the scheme, although he could not say how much it would cost the exchequer.

'Very sympathetic'

"I'm very sympathetic, we received the submission to Clare County Council and the team in Clare has done a really good job on it," he said.

"We received that on July 29, so we're assessing the applications that would have come in for Mayo and Donegal. 

We're not dragging our feet and we have assured the group we want to bring the review of the submission to a conclusion as soon as we can."

He said he wanted the submission to be completed in "a matter of weeks".

"Then obviously, subject to the submission meeting the criteria that is set, we could then move it on quite quickly. 

"As long as the criteria is met, I don't see any issue. I'm here to help. I'm here to help the homeowners. There's no budgetary issue in regards to Clare."

Mr O'Brien said  he believed "those who are responsible" should be held accountable for the debacle.

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"I'm going to use every avenue I have open to me to pursue them and I've charged the Attorney General with that work to come back to me with what we can do legally," he said.

"My first priority, though, is to give certainty to people that their homes will be made good, but this is a significant expense for the exchequer and there have been some instances where builders have paid in – very few, but in some instances they have been.

"We're going to look at every legal avenue available to us to go after those who are responsible for the scourge that is pyrite in the block and indeed other construction defects."