Fools Gold

FOOLS GOLD

FOOLS GOLD

Introduction The discovery that your home is impacted by latent

skills in audio-visual documentation, in gathering evi-

building defects, whether concrete blocks, concrete

dence, in media communication, in organising collec-

foundations or any other critical flaw due to non-reg-

tive actions. I would need all of these in what would

ulation of building industry suppliers in Ireland, is sim-

become a project lasting years to access assistance,

ilar to receiving a life changing diagnosis. However,

if not justice.

instead of it being your body that’s on a clock, it’s your home and all the emotional, psychological, financial

The first newspaper article featuring my story ap-

and other investments built upon it. On August 1st

peared in the Clare Champion on 4th Sept 2020. It

2020, I discovered the cornerstone of my small bun-

was a direct public appeal for others potentially im-

galow in rural County Clare was slowly rotting away

pacted in the county to make contact. Within a week,

due to defective concrete blocks. With this disccov-

I was approached by seven homeowners in Clare.

ery, all financial security, peace of mind and plans I

Within a month, twenty-four had joined CPAG. Within

had for the future also crumbled. In an instant my life

six months this had grown to fifty-two members. Day

changed and became a search to firstly understand

by day, week by week as the calls and emails came in,

what was happening, and then take whatever actions

I began to realise I was far from alone. By May 2022,

were needed to restore what was lost.

I knew of 1,025 potentially impacted homes, with data gathered through interviews with a focus group

Three weeks later, after many sleepless nights and

of over ninety. The aim of this ground-up, research

reading of the mica crisis of Donegal and the pyrite

driven, arts informed activisim was to raise awareness,

problems of Mayo, I began to suspect the worst. No,

find others, make a case for equality of assistance for

there was no easy fix for this. The best I could do was

those impacted in Clare. In this work, I have also be-

patch it up, to slow the inevitable decay. No, there

came more meaningfully and authentically immersed

was no financial assistance in County Clare although

in community-based, socially engaged arts practice

a grant was available in Donegal and Mayo for the

than in any of my previous projects. As the campaign

same problem. No, the Local Authority - Clare County

I initiated and lead gained momentum, so too did the

Council, had never heard of such a thing in this coun-

political necessity to finally admit this problem extend-

ty. There weren’t any politicians who returned my calls

ed beyond Donegal and Mayo. At each stage of this

asking for assistance. There was no legislation in Ire-

process CPAG met with extraordinary levels of denial,

land to protect me as a homeowner in this situation.

resistance and delay from government. It would take

There wasn’t even a solicitor willing to take on my

three years before homeowners in Clare could apply

case. With nowhere to go for help, on Sept 4th 2020,

for what government stated was a €2.7 billion euro

I founded the Clare Pyrite Action Group (CPAG), with

grant scheme and the largest in state history.

a membership of one. As an artist, activist and researcher I had some experience of community-based

However as of Sept 2024, there is not a single home

and ground-up initiatives. I had

in County Clare which has been restored.

For those few who have received a grant decision,

In particular Mary and Seamus Hanley, Geraldine and

the reality that shortfalls in the remediation sums of-

Thomas Kennedy, Eileen Mc Mahon, Danny and The-

fered will exclude many from ever rebuilding their

resa Maloney, Anthony O’Loughlin, Bríd Devanney,

home, is becoming starkly apparant. This shortfall

Paschal and Frieda Carmody, Val Donnellan, Ted and

along with unresolved questions on the remortgage

Gráinne Harrington, Michelle and Steve Mansfield,

ability, insurability and validity of partial remediation

Linda O’Callaghan and Bridget Hayes. The sustained

options, has left all impacted in a state of prolonged

journalistic coverage by Fiona McGarry for The Clare

uncertainty and trauma. Official acknowledgement

Champion is also remembered with gratitude. Some

of the problem of defective concrete blocks in Clare

of the over one-hundred articles she wrote between

was brought to the table of local and national gov-

2020 and 2023 on the issue of pyrite in the defective

ernment only through the sustained efforts of the

concrete blocks in Clare, are included here to trace a

CPAG campaign. What has been discoverred to date

timeline of events.

is likely only a fraction of the homes effected in this county and beyond.

Visual and textual materials included in this publication are my own (except where otherwise attributed).

This publication, which is volume one in a series cat-

They form part of a larger body of work; photographs,

alogues part of this journey. It includes a selection

video and writing for exhibition and publication. This

of materials from the archive of photographs, inter-

practice-based, mixed-methods research, conducted

views, media articles, actions and research which has

between (2020-2024) also informed my submissions

informed events and outcomes. Reference to the par-

to the Local Authority, the Departmnet of Housing,

allel campaigns in both Mayo and Donegal are also

Heritage and Local Government, three Oireachtas

included, reflecting the ongoing relationship which

Committees on the Defective Concrete Block Grant

has existed between impacted homeowner groups in

Scheme (June 2022, July 2023, Feb 2024) and the

these counties. This volume also contains documen-

PETI Committee of The European Parliament (Jan

tation of actions and events which CPAG organised

2024).

to ensure the problem of defective concrete blocks in Clare was finally officially acknowledged. This in-

Dr. Martina Cleary

cluded bringing the campaign into both real and vir-

Sept 2024

tual spaces, through street protest, participation in political forums and maintaining a sustained online presence through social media. Acknowledgement must be given to the core group of CPAG members, who fearlessly came forward to tell their stories, or contribute as CPAG committee members.

Pyrite A shiny, yellow mineral containing iron and sulphur, that looks like gold but is not valuable.

Often called ‘fools gold’.

Pyrite is the most abundant sulfide mineral.

From Greek puritēs (lithos) fire (stone), that is, capable of withstanding or striking fire.

Discovery

Cornerstone of my home gives way.

First IS:465 engineerrs report.

First email to the Minister of Housing (no response).

First calls to Local Authority and TDs (no response).

First calls to local solicitors.

First call to local newspaper.

CPAG founded.

I document homes of first 10 homeowners to join CPAG and conduct surveys with 24 members by Oct 2020.

First radio interviews.

CPAG lobby all 28 County Councillors in Clare.

Motion passed in Council Chamber to write to Dept. of Housing, Local Government and Heritage.

CPAG lobby all TDs and Senators in Clare.

Issue of pyrite in Clare raised in Dáil.

First meetings of CPAG online.

First meetings between CPAG and Local Authority.

Dept. informs Local Authority that the extent of the problem in Clare must be proven.

TIME LIVING WITH IMPACT: 5 months

AUTUMN 2020

Gable wall of Kennedy home Parteen (Sept 2020)

Pyrite Destroys Clare Homes First radio interview on Clare FM Dr. Martina Cleary and Geraldine Kennedy speaking to Gavin Grace on Morning Focus (Sept 14th, 2020) Gavin Grace (GG): Now I want to talk about pyrite. It’s a common mineral present in many sedimentary rocks and subject to certain conditions can be problematic when it finds its way into homes. This is due to a chemical reaction and as a result when this happens pyrite can lead to devastating cracks in homes both internally and externally. The costs of fixing this can be quite expensive indeed. In response to the problem which has emerged in many parts of the country over recent times a Pyrite Redress Scheme was set up by government, but only for homeowners in certain counties. Clare is not one of those even though there are problems with pyrite in homes across the county. Dr. Martina Cleary is with us in studio. She established the Clare Pyrite Action Group. Martina, good morning to you and thank you very much for joining us.

Dr. Martina Cleary (DMC): Good morning.

GG: You’re living near Crusheen, and you have pyrite in your home.

DMC: Yes, that’s correct. So, I have a small bungalow just outside Crusheen and literally in August this year I discovered it. I noticed first of all cracking on the gable end of my house. It was initially one crack and then it widened. So obviously I had engineers up to have a look. The two engineers one from Ennis and one from the Midlands had a look at it and they misdiagnosed the problem. Myself, I thought it was subsidence and they identified it was lack of adequate storm drains. I was in the process of having that addressed over the summer, and a workman discovered it, as he tried to repair the wall, that the blockwork crumbled.

GG: How discovered? Because I think this is quite a telling story unfortunately.

DMC: Well, it was quite a shock you know and I’m still I suppose processing that. With the crack that was there on the day, he obviously tried to fix it. He got past the render and what happened was the block crumbled. It disintegrated and it was the wrong color.

GG: I think there are some tests that have to be fully carried out, but you know it’s been diagnosed that you have pyrite or mica.

DMC: Well even speaking to the workmen that were there in the day, they had seen this problem before.

A lot of people are putting it down to cavity wall insulation. They said to me, maybe that’s expanding and pushing the blocks out. They had seen it before. But when I did the first step, to get a designated engineer on the pyrite register and he did a visual inspection.

That’s quite expensive you know, you have to pay for that up front, without a grant. So, it was €645 straight up. He did a visual analysis, and the twenty-page report arrived on the 26th of August. There are a number of categories, and I have significant damage.

It’s a terrible discovery. It’s like cancer in your house.

GG: You have asked I am sure, what’s it going to cost to fix?

DMC: Yes, well the next stage is prohibitively costly.

As the engineer said to me, and he has seen he said, forty to fifty houses in this area. It’s between six and ten thousand to get the sampling done, plus vat. So, they come along, and they have to look at the inner leaf and the outer leaf, take core samples and send them off for all kinds of analysis. Because the problem is defective blocks and they have to find out is it pyrite or is it mica? Now most people can’t afford that.

So, if you’re in Mayo or Donegal that’s paid for. It’s the first step. You get your pyrite engineer who has to be registered on the IS:465 register, who is qualified to actually see and assess the building and categorize it. Then you have to have the core sampling done, because that determines the course of action.

GG: I’m sorry forty to fifty homes in the Clare area?

DMC: Yes, that’s what my engineer said. He said between Clare and Limerick.

GG: We’re joined this morning as well by Geraldine Kennedy. She’s from Parteen. Geraldine good morning to you.

Geraldine Kennedy (GK): Good morning, Gavin.

GG: Thank you very much for joining us on the program this morning. Unfortunately, your home too is also affected with pyrite. When did the problems first emerge for you?

GK: Well, mine started Gavin in around 2000, 2002 and this got worse, it seems to get worse through the years. In 2007 we brought it to the insurance company, and it was kind of an ongoing thing. They were saying it was settlement cracks. But it just worsened and worsened. I had lots of assessors and engineers on board, but to no avail. We didn’t get any further than that.

Cornerstone of Cleary home Crusheen (Sept 2020)

There was nothing solid for us. So, we found an engineer there just about a year ago. A great man in his field and he has left no stone unturned and came up with the 85% pyrite in the block. We’ve had all the testing carried out everything has been done by BHP laboratories. We’re just finished now with all the testing. It’s very costly, I can say very costly.

GG: And if you were living in other parts of the country, as I understand it Geraldine, you would now be able to apply to a government scheme, whereby the cost of repairing this would be pretty much covered by the state.

But because your house is in Clare that’s not the case.

GK: Exactly that’s our argument now. We have to find out where we stand, and you know follow suit with the people in Donegal and Mayo.

GG: How do the problems manifest themselves in your home Geraldine?

GK: My house is ready to just fall down Gavin. Mine is the severe one. It’s actually like you can’t get any worse than what it is. You know we live in fear of our house.

I have ten grandchildren; you might have read it on the paper. I’ve been stressed out. I’ve lost my hair. I’ve been hospitalsed with panic attacks. It just gets worse and worse. Life just gets harder and harder each day.

You get up in the morning and you say to yourself, it’s a lovely day. You go out, look at your house. It’s not a lovely day Geraldine. Come back in, close your door. You know because it’s just the most frightening and the most horrible thing to look at, is your house falling down around you. And crying for help Gavin and nobody, well now there’s somebody listening. But before that, for years remember this has happened to me in 2002 and now we’re actually in 2020. It’s a long time to be living with this pressure a long, long time.

GG: When you say you’re in fear of your house. Do you mean that it might - something might fall off and structural issues?

GK: Yes it’s that way Gavin. The chimney had to be taken down because of the severity of it. Even before the people carried out the work to get the cores on the side of the house, that chimney had to be taken down, for fear it would fall with the vibrations of the machinery. So that will tell you how bad my house is.

GG: Obviously financially you don’t have the option to move. You’re paying for your home.

GK: I’m paying for my home.

GG: With respect it’s not going to be bought by many

people. So, you’re stuck in limbo.

GK: Yes, we’re stuck in limbo now. We’re stuck here for the remainder. You know we worked hard. I did work hard, my husband is still working hard. At the end of the day, you buy a house, and you say, oh this is a beautiful house. We’re going to retire here, and you know, our grandkids can enjoy it. But that’s all gone.

GG: Martina, you have established the Pyrite Action Group here in Clare for people like yourself and Geraldine. Have others come forward as well?

DMC: People are coming forward particularly after Geraldine’s article, and you can hear it’s incredibly upsetting. You know a human story. Her house would be kind of on the extreme end because she’s been fighting so long. I’m just at the beginning of the road and I suppose when I discovered it, I was trying to find people like me to reach out. Because there’s very little help and support out there. Thankfully people are coming forward and there is you know solace in that, in a way. At the moment I’m going around and I’m documenting the houses, making an archive so that we can make our case. We need support and my understanding is, it has to come through first of all the Local Authority. Through petitioning, or lobbying, or whatever is required there, to ask for the extension of the remediation grant.

So, I suppose it’s a call out to people like ourselves, because I’m sure there are lots out there. Maybe you’re sitting listening, and you know. You’re recognising it as we’re describing it, and I’ve also set up a page on social media. On Facebook it’s Clare Pyrite Action Group.

So, if you’re not sure and you want to see what it looks like. If you want to know what the grant is, go there it’s a resource. Once you start recognising it, please please approach us, because there’s strength together.

GG: That’s the grant worth to you, if you were to qualify for it ? Would it make all your problems go away?

Would it cover the cost of making your problems go away? Should we say, well let’s say is the grant really worth it?

DMC: You get a categorisation for the house. So the lowest grant, if they had for example, to take off the gable wall and the outer leaf? The outer leaf is the outer layer of blocks. That could be about €50,000, but it goes right up to the most extreme case of €275,000, if your house is deemed ready for demolishment.

You might say that’s quite extreme, but if you actually look at the material when you see the blocks disintegrating to dust, of course you can’t live in a house like that. It’s structurally unsound over time.

Geraldine Kennedy at the gable wall of her home Parteen (Sept 2020)

It doesn’t get better either. It just gets worse.

GG: Do you have a concern in any way that the task you’re taking on might be a difficult one? On the front page of the Irish Times this morning, there’s a piece in which they were told, the Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien is taking a look at setting up a group to help with homeowners who have Celtic Tiger building defects. Now it’s not pyrite, but it’s more you know, the fire safety issues that we’ve seen in blocks of flats. But in that article, it makes reference to the Pyrite Redress Scheme. It talks about how it cost the state tens of millions of euros, and outlines how there’s a reluctance to go too far down the road in respect to this other issue. They don’t want to take on the cost again. Now I know it’s a separate matter but the point I’m making is, that money has been put into this already. I’m not saying you don’t deserve it, but somewhere there’s going to be a bean counter saying, if we open it up there, we have to open it up everywhere else and it’s going to cost goodness knows how much.

DMC: Well, I think they have done such extensive work recognising the problem in 2017 in Mayo and Donegal. You know after two years they released the Expert Panel Report. They recognised, they know what it is and to me it’s kind of like discrimination in a way. Because we have exactly the same thing.

If I went into hospital and had a serious illness and they said, well because you’re living in this county you will not get the right medical attention. You know it’s the same and I know we’re dealing with terrible issues due to COVID and lack of money and everything. But when you think about our homes, it’s the last sanctuary. It’s our resource and we’ve learned that even more so recently. It’ll bring money into the economy here as well. What we are dealing with here actually - there are quarries and building suppliers that didn’t provide adequate material. It was not fit for purpose. It’s kind of absurd to say that’s OK. If I went in and bought a car in the morning and drove away in it, and it was dangerous, there’s no country in Europe that would sanction that and say it’s OK. GG: Geraldine, you talked a minute ago about how this group is being set up. That you have some cause for optimism. Are you confident you’ll get redress?

GK: Oh God yes Gavin. I’m going to fight. I’m going to fight the whole way and Martina thank you for doing that. I wouldn’t have known. I was in limbo all along until Martina and the article in the paper. It was great you know. I said, “Oh there’s light at the end of this tunnel anyway”. So, we’re going to do our best together. You know just hope

and pray and do our best and try and get somewhere. But we will really fight until the end. The people in Mayo and Donegal have done it, so we can get together now as well and do the same.

GG: Cathal Crowe, Fianna Fáil TD for Clare has been in touch. He’s been speaking, he tells us, with some of the people in our country who either have suspected or confirmed pyrite in the blockwork of their homes. He tells me he’s tabled two questions in the Dáil this week and that he’s pushing for the Pyrite Remediation Scheme to be extended to Clare. How do you make that happen Martina?

DMC: Well, I just want to say thank you to Fiona McGarry. It’s actually her articles in the Clare Champion. I suppose I was the first one that came forward.

I would say as well there’s been a response from Sinn Féin. Eoin O’ Broin I believe has also brought it up in the Dáil last week to the Minister. We need the support of every political party really. This isn’t one or the other and please don’t think so. We need the support of every Councillor and Senator in Clare.

We need all of our TDs to come forward. I believe Joe Carey also raised it in 2018. So, I think there’s an awareness there and people are approaching their own TD. I think we need to come together because this kind of supersedes political affiliation.

This is our homes, and everybody is impacted profoundly. People can get in touch on clarepyriteactiongroup@gmail.com and we’re also on social media: Clare Pyrite Action Group on Facebook, so please make contact. My profession is, I’m a photographer, film and video maker as well. I’m a lecturer at LIT and I’m making a visual archive so that we have proof, we have documentation of what this is.

GG: Geraldine just finally, to those who are listeningmaybe councillors or TDs, those who are in power.

If you could say something to them to try and encourage them to help you. Why should they do that?

GK: Well, I think myself Gavin, that they should. They should try and help us because we’re here at night and we can’t sleep. We’re here like a different breed, with a house as Martina says, that has cancer. It’s eating and eating away at the house. I know these people are you know human beings too. They are TDs and whatever, but at the end of the day, they should try and help us. I’m not saying they have a perfect life, but at the end of the day they should try and help these people that can’t sleep at night and who are living in fear. That’s what they’re there for, what they’re in office for, to help us. I just ask and beg, and I’m begging them to please, please help us. We need help.

Mary Hanley

Drumline Interview with Dr. Martina Cleary (March 2024) I suppose home means everything to me, or at least it used to. Home means a safe place. A place where you could switch off, come in from a day’s work, come in from school in the evening with the kids, have dinner and relax. I used to enjoy my garden, but I don’t anymore. I couldn’t be bothered doing anything with it to be honest. I’m just waiting for this house to be demolished.

I’m from Clare and returned here from Dublin in 1985.

We bought the site here in Drumline and had a house built and moved in by July 1988. We got a local builder, an excellent builder and we had an architect, an engineer, the whole lot in planning and building. We were extremely pleased with everything and very happy this was our house. It was going to be our house until the end, whenever that would be. We reared our children here and we were very happy.

I remember as a child, going back to my grandmother’s house, a farmhouse back in west Clare. I mean, that was her pride and joy. It was the most important thing in her life. It was her farm, her home and her farm.

My great grandmother’s house, which is still standing I might add, back in west Clare, which is about three hundred years old. That house has been the centre of all my mother’s family’s lives forever. So home is, or was very precious, very important. Unfortunately, over the last number of years this all changed. But I’ve lost interest in it and I’m not the only one. The boys have lost interest, my husband has lost interest in the home now. Anything we do, we do just to keep it together.

My career was in education, I worked for years as a teacher and also a school principal in Shannon, but had to take early retirement due to illness. I had and recovered from cancer. The advice from medical professionals at the time was, that it would be better for my health to retire. Though I have to say, I enjoyed every minute of my teaching career and especially my principalship. To be honest, I didn’t know what stress was when I was teaching. Not until three years ago when I discovered that the house that we spent every penny on, including paying off a large mortgage, had defective concrete blocks.

The cracks began to appear in 2019. The quantity surveyor who had been involved here, initially said it was only settlement cracks, but they worried me. One

(Over) Residue from defective concrete blocks staining the windows at the Hanley home (Feb 2024)

gable was particularly bad, so we got an IS:465 qualified structural engineer to have a look, and he said it was either pyrite or mica. I was quite shocked and if the doctors thought stress being a school principal was bad, I can guarantee you the stress I experienced over the last four years has been unbelievable. We have had nothing but false promises and more false promises from politicians telling us everything would be fine. But honestly this has been nothing but an absolute nightmare.

Seamus and I put in so much money into this house.

We did everything we could to make it a nice happy pleasant comfortable home for our children. Now as I’m driving to the front gate and all I see are cracks, it’s a pile of rubble that I have lost all interest in. It doesn’t feel like my home anymore. I just feel that this is a pile of rubble. It has to be cleared out and I will have to start all over again. My interest in the house is gone and I would just prefer that the whole thing disappeared overnight. I didn’t think I’d have to start afresh at this time in my life. I feel so sorry for those of my age group and there are quite a lot of people in this area in their sixties, seventies, even eighties who are impacted by this.

I have two little granddaughters and a grandson who notice and count every increasing crack. They asked if it will fall down some night, when we were having a sleepover, and I have to reassure them that’s not going to happen. But deep down, I’m saying to myselfwell you don’t know Mary what’s going to happen.

I’ve heard other grannies saying exactly the same thing. They can’t have their children for sleepovers anymore, because they’re actually petrified of their houses.

How will I be able to start all over again? I mean I don’t have twenty or thirty years to plan what we’re going to do next. I need this house to be fixed soon, or I will be six feet under before it happens. Imagine having to think about that? Or what inheritance I will pass on to my children, when it could be a pile of worthless rubble. It’s going to cost thirty to fifty thousand just to demolish and remove the defective blocks alone.

Seamus and Mary Hanley at the gable wall of their home Drumline (Sept 2020)

Anthony O’Loughlin at the gable wall of his home Miltown Malbay (Oct 2020)

Eileen Mc Mahon

Fanore Interview with Dr. Martina Cleary (March 2024) Home means everything. Having family here, being able to welcome them in. But the way the house is it’s very hard to do that now. I suppose home means different things to everyone, but I think it’s the heart of the family. Where everyone is comfortable to be. It means everything.

If you’re comfortable in your own home, it’s the ideal thing, it really is.

I absolutely hate this house now. I really do. It’s not something that you look forward to coming home to. There are times when I’d sooner be gone out of the house altogether, than being here. It’s just not a happy place anymore. I’m hoping that will change eventually.

It’s bad, really bad when the storms come in. That last storm Debbie, in December really scared me. My family said to me, “why didn’t you come knock on our door”, but it’s very hard to do that at three o’clock in the morning.

I wouldn’t sleep a wink, if it’s really bad. I felt as if the roof was going to go. I slept upstairs but it was just so uncomfortable, I came down and slept in the kitchen with the dog.

For a long time, I didn’t talk to anybody about it.

Whether I thought it was going to disappear or what I don’t know. But most of them know about it now and they’re fine. I don’t mind anymore, but you do feel embarrassed about it. Hopefully we’ll get reimbursed, but I don’t like the fact that the country’s going to be paying for it, rather than the people who supplied the blocks. Simple as that. It’s not right. But the options aren’t there, we only have the one line to go. I couldn’t have afforded to take on the block company.

How did I feel when I first discovered it was the blocks? I felt sick to the core. I’d already had tests done myself. That company had informed me that my blocks were fine. That’s what really sickened me. When I got the second test done and found out that my blocks were full of pyrite.

My home was my castle years ago, now it’s nothing. It means nothing to me anymore. I just want rid of it and I think it’s playing havoc on my health as well.

Eileen Mc Mahon at the front door of her home Fanore (Oct 2020)

Gable wall of McMahon home Fanore (Oct 2020)

Eileen Mc Mahon at her home in Fanore (March 2024)

Gable of O’Callaghan home Cooraclare (Nov 2020)

Corner of O’Donnell home Shannon with metal rod pushed into widening crack to demonstrate loss of block strength behind render (Nov 2020)

Gable wall of O’Connell home Clonlara (March 2024)

(Right) First letter from LA to Secretary General, DHLGH (Oct 2020).

(Above) Extract from first survey conducted by Dr. Martina Cleary with 24 homeowenrs (Oct 2020).

Evidencing

Local Authority (LA) extends Survey Grant to core test 5 properties.

Properties selected from CPAG membership based on: geographical location, year of build, existing IS:465 reports and classification.

Core testing of 5 properties begins.

LA initially states it will also test 5 of its own properties, but Dept. officials have given assurance that five in total will suffice.

Long wait for core testing results begins.

Design and conduct second survey of the now 52 members of CPAG. Findings are provided to LA to include in Summary Assessment Report to meet Departmental request to quantify as well as qualify the extent of the problem in Clare.

CPAG joins campaign groups from Donegal and Mayo at the 100% Redress Protest in Dublin on June 16th 2021.

Full Summary Report evidencing pyrite in all 5 properties tested is submitted by LA to the Dept. in July 2021.

Request for inclusion of Clare with Donegal and Mayo, in the Working Group formed in July 2021, to discuss terms of the new Defective Concrete Blocks Grant Scheme is refused by Dept. and Minister.

Visit to impacted home in Kilkischen by Mary Lou McDonald in July 2021.

Media campaign widens.

TIME LIVING WITH IMPACT: 1 year

SPRING/SUMMER 2021

(Right) Core extraction at the Hanley home (Feb 2021)

Core extraction at the Cleary home (Feb 2021)

Extract from conclusions in the Summary Assessment Report submitted by LA to Department of the Minister (July 2021) including map with 55 properties. 52 of these were identified through survey of CPAG members.

3 were added by LA.

CPAG join the 100% Redress Protest in Dublin, June 16th 2021, (Right) Joe O’ Donnell, Seamus Hanley, Dr. Martina Cleary and Danny Maloney.

(Previous) Bríd Devanney, Steve Mansfield and Senator Timmy Dooley.

Danny Maloney

Kilkischen Interview with Dr. Martina Cleary (March 2024) The home is where we live and are supposed to be happy, a safe place. A place that all my family can enjoy, and I suppose that I can grow old here. That’s what I would say a home is. The home, it’s not just blocks and mortar which a lot of people think. But it’s not. It’s a place that you either buy or you build, a place that you try and provide a roof over your head and try and keep it for as long as you can. If something happens it’s a very disappointing thing. That you might have to go and knock it again. But that house will never be the house that you would have gone back to for years, because you take the character out of the house you had. Even if you build a new house, it’s never going to be the same. So that’s what I think. It actually is very important to try and keep a house, but when something happens it, it’s not the same house again.

Before we had any problems with the defective blocks, this house was a very warm and friendly home to come into. But since that happened you don’t look at it like it’s the same house. Even my kids say “dad, what’s going to happen to our house? Will it be knocked? Where are we going to live?” But before, there was no talk of that. You’d just come in, in the evening. You’d sit around this kitchen table and talk about different things, like how’d you get on at work, where are you working tomorrow? We might go away for the weekend. But the very minute this came in. It’s like a thing you don’t want to talk about.

Because people can get depressed over it and they feel, can we just leave that subject aside and maybe something might happen down the road that might solve it.

I built this house when I was in America. I went to America in 1986 and came back then and got married. My wife and I went over. We worked hard. We built this house over and then we came back and are back now twenty-two years. The last ten years we’ve seen all these cracks appearing. We had no idea.

Then we got it tested and found out that we had pyrite and it changed. It changed the humour in the family, in the house. Before we used to paint it and do a lot of things around it. But now we have no interest in doing anything with the house at all.

There’s an awful lot of people who know that we have a defective house. Ninety percent of the people I meet are sympathetic, but then there’s maybe ten percent that say, “maybe we have it ourselves but don’t want to know about it”. A lot of people have

met me in shops in Ennis, Limerick and say to me, “you were in the paper. Are you the person with the defective house?” And I say, I am. A lot more people around me have it and they ask, “what’s going to happen, are you going to get the grant?” And I say, I don’t know. It’s like catch 22. Even if we do get the grant, there’s so much red tape that we mightn’t be able to rebuild our house to the same standard it is. Well number one, I tell them, who has a hundred thousand or eighty thousand? Because you’re not going to be able to rebuild it on the money they’re giving you. Another thing is, if they don’t give you the full grant, of everything being taken out, like foundations and all that, your house may never be certified again.

We probably had mixed feelings. Number one, who is going to cover this? And number two, how did this happen? And number three, who actually was at fault? Was it something that we bought, defective blocks? I mean we bought bad blocks. Was it just a bad batch or did the people who supplied us with the blocks, the concrete and all that, was it their fault? It kind of runs through your mind. You’re saying well what can we do? All we can do is fight on and get someone to be more or less responsible. There are an awful lot of people out there in the same boat as me. They don’t know what’s going to happen either.

Who’s going to be accountable at the end of the day?

The only thing I can think about the relationship with the house. If I had no cracks, if I had no defective blocks in the house, I would have an awful lot more work done to it. What I’m saying is, what’s the use of putting in maybe ten thousand, if I never get it back?

If I have to throw that into a derelict site. So, I have no interest in painting, or my kids have no interest in it.

Why spend money on something that’s maybe going to be knocked? So that’s basically why a lot of people have no interest in doing anything with a lot of these houses. Sugar coating isn’t going to solve it.

The only part of the house that I would be checking would be the main gable there, where it’s very bad, and the back of the house. I would go around now and again and check the rest of the gables, because there are cracks in them as well. To just see if they’re getting any worse. The gable upstairs, there’s a crack in the very back. I would check that because my daughter, she has her bedroom upstairs and I don’t want anything to happen. To make sure that she’s safe upstairs. I would go around, but not as much as I used to anymore. I’ve kind of lost the interest.

The gable wall of the Maloney home Kilkischen (Oct 2020)

I kind of say, well ok, it’s not getting any worse or better. When a bad storm or bad weather comes, I always go out the next day and give a check and see, is there any loose block? Is there any dampness coming in the windows and things like that. In my daughters’ room, it’s all mold, but in general you just try and more or less keep it as safe as you can.

It’s an ongoing thing. It’s on your mind all the time.

I’d be often at the shop, and someone would say to me, “how’s your house, did you get any results?” and that would kind of bring it back. If he’s talking about it, who else is talking about it? You try and blank it out. But when other people are mentioning it, other people are kind of reminding you of it. It’s coming back. Even my wife, when she’s at work, the people she’s working for would say to her, “how’s your house, did you get the grant?” She says, well we’re working on it. Other than that, it wouldn’t really be something that you’d be discussing around the kitchen table.

Like three years ago, it would be the topic of conversation. But now you’re kind of losing interest, because the government has no interest in doing anything. All we’re trying to do is get a fair deal for the people in Clare. It’s not a thing that you want to discuss all the time, but it’s a thing that’s always in the back of your mind.

I suppose the most obvious is when you drive up in the evening and look at your gable and you see, well how did this get so bad? You come in the back door, and you can’t open the back door. You look at the outside and say, well paint isn’t going to cover this?

You don’t want to be reminded, but it’s sticking out there and reminding you, because it’s not going away until its fixed.

What I feel about the people that supplied and the people who caused all this, is that they should be brought to justice. The other thing I feel very annoyed about is that the people in the government don’t really want to know anything about it. The people who are getting away with this, they seem to have the power over the government. The likes of us, we are all just small little fish in the sea. The big fish, he’s just swallowing us up. Every corner we try to turn and do something there’s some other big whale coming along saying....”hey, sssshhh, leave it alone”.

Danny Maloney at the gable wall of his home (March 2024)

(Over) Mary Lou Mc Donald meets members of CPAG at the Maloney home Kilkischen, (July 2021)

Danny Maloney speaking to Enda O’Dowd The Irish Times (2022)

Waiting

CPAG meets with Minister Darragh O’Brien at Clare County Council Headquarters, Ennis during his visit to Clare in Aug 2021.

Minister also visits the Hanley home in Drumline, promising a decision on extension of a grant to Clare will be “in a matter of weeks”, as the Summary Assessment Report from Clare is now on his table.

First CPAG townhall meetings held in Ennis in Sept and Oct 2021 when no decision is forthcoming.

Clare TDs, Senators and Councillors invited to attend for open discusson on this delay.

Letter from Dept. of the Minister is issued on Dec 6th 2021, denying extension of the grant to Clare.

Despite the fact that equally rigorous testing and analysis has been conducted, identical to that which has qualified over 200 homeowners in Mayo for access to a grant, the Dept. continues to deny there are grounds to extend equal assistance to Clare.

TIME LIVING WITH IMPACT: 1 year, six month

AUTUMN 2021

The problem of pyrite in County Clare is acknowledged as early as (2012) by then Senator Darragh O’Brien.

It is also raised directly by Joe Carey TD in (2018). Extract of Seanad and Dáil debates.

Minister Darragh O’Brien at the Hanley home, Drumline (Aug 2021)

CPAG members including Joe O’Donnell (right) meet Minister O’Brien during his visit to the Hanley home (Aug 2021)

Seamus and Mary Hanley speaking with the Minister about the damage to their home.

CPAG meeting with elected representatives to discuss delays by government in responding to the Summary Assessment Report Treacys Westcounty Hotel Ennis (Oct 2021)

Response from Department of the Minister on the Summary Assessment Report submitted in (July 2021)

Conclusions from the Department on Property A

Property A: Homeowner photograph of condition of block during core extraction.

Conclusions from the Department on Property B

Extract from the IS:465 engineers report on Property B, evidencing condition of blocks during coring.

Conclusions from the Department on Property C

Extract from petrographic analysis on Property C, following analysis of blocks.

Conclusions from the Department on Property D

Extract from petrographic analysis on Property D, following analysis of blocks.

Conclusions from the Department on Property E

Extract from the IS:465 engineer report on Property E including results from petrographic analysis of blocks.

A Needle in a Haystack

CPAG meets with LA who will now commence “additional testing” on 5 properties from their own holdings.

The level of scientific evidence requested by Dept. to prove the problem in Clare is likened to finding “a needle in a haystack” or “a single blade of grass in Croke Park” by our expert engineer.

It also exceeds the IS:465 testing protocal, admitting homeowners in Mayo and Donegal to the Scheme.

CPAG organises the Ennis Rally protest for the end of Jan 2022.

I conduct further in-depth interviews with the now 90 members of CPAG, gathering additional data on the source of the blocks, type of build and impacted areas in the county.

In Spring 2022 the LA also admits it is aware of 350 potentially impacted homes amongst it’s holdings.

By May 2022, CPAG is aware of 1025 potentially impacted homes, 17 housing estates and 11 public buildings in the county.

Following the additional scientific testing, an extensive 1500 page report is submitted by LA to the Dept. in April 2022.

It provides “irrefutable evidence” that pyrite oxidation and above regulation standard levels of sulphides exist in properties in Clare. Findings of this resarch are also presented at the international online conference, ‘Loosing Your Home The Impact of Defective Concrete Blocks in Ireland’, in May 2022.

On June 12th 2022, the new €2.7 billion euro Defective Concrete Blocks Grant Scheme, is signed off by cabinet.

It will now also include Clare and Limerick, in addition to Mayo and Donegal.

There is no communication of this to CPAG or impacted homeowners in Clare.

We learn of it through calls from national media outlets asking for comment.

CPAG joins campaigners from Mayo, Donegal, Limerick and Sligo at protests on the lack of adequate pre-legislative scrutiny of this new DCB Grant Scheme, outside the Dáil in June 2022.

Campaign leaders are invited to speak at the first Joint Oireachtas Committee Meeting on the Remediation of Dwelliings damaged by the Use of Defective Concrete Blocks Bill, in June 2022.

CPAG also joins campaigners from Mayo, Donegal and Limerick to witness the Dáil debate on the new Scheme from the Dáil public gallery, in July 2022.

We have worked together for months to outline 180 requested ammendments to ensure the grant is fair and accessible for all.

This includes concerns about leaving foundations in place.

Requested ammendments are submitted to TDs and senators in the impacted counties, to raise on the floor of the Dáil and Seanad.

All but a few ammendments are voted down.

TIME LIVING WITH IMPACT: 2 years

SPRING/SUMMER 2022

clarepyriteactiongroup@gmail.com https://www.facebook.com/Clarepyriteactiongroup https://twitter.com/ClarePyrite Jan 16th 2022 Dear Minister O’Brien, I am writing to you following your meeting with representatives of Clare Pyrite Action Group, during your visit to County Clare on Aug 27th.

We have received the reply from your Department on Dec 6th, and subsequent responses given to our elected representatives in the Dáil, to the report submitted by Clare County Council in on July 23rd. This requested extension of a grant scheme to County Clare, to assist those suffering the blight of defective concrete blocks in this county. We have also met with our consultant engineer and have been provided with a copy of the most recent material submitted by Clare County Council to your Dept on Dec 23rd.

I am now writing to you directly, to express the deep concern felt by impacted homeowners in County Clare, and to raise the points below, as we have no other means at this juncture to have our voices heard on these matters.

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. I make this comment, based on the assessments, scientific data and outcomes of core testing provided by our engineer and laboratory results. These are based on equally rigorous analysis, and the sound professional judgement which has qualified over 200 homes access to the Defective Concrete Blocks Grant Scheme, in County Mayo. 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. I will add here, that the issue of pyrite in County Clare was acknowledged as early as (2012) in the Seanad by you while a FF Senator, and also raised in the Dáil by Joe Carey FG TD for County Clare in (2018).

With respect to the Defective Concrete Blocks Grant Scheme, announced on November 30th 2021, we have a number of concerns; 1. The sliding-scale: This will have to be abolished, along with the ‘economies of scale’ rationale, if the governmental commitment to 100% redress for each and every homeowner, on an equal and just footing, as committed to by the Dáil on June 16th is to be honoured. Further, all homeowners should be guaranteed full remediation of their properties.

We purchased or built our homes in good faith, and it was the responsibility of the State to ensure concrete blocks, like all other products under Irish and European law, were properly regulated, monitored and controlled. This applies to all properties containing defective un-regulated blocks.

2. Building Condition Assessment and Damage Threshold clause: This appears to be appropriated from the Pyrite Remediation Scheme, where it was a means to deny up to 90% of homeowners access to assistance. There is considerable ambiguity in point 3. in relation to the burden of proof.

If the onus is on the homeowner to prepare a ‘Building Condition Assessment in accordance with the IS. 465.2018 standard’, funds should be made available at the outset to also conduct the necessary core testing. This should constitute the Damage Threshold assessment, no other unquantified mechanism designed to circumvent the homeowners right to an independent professional evaluation of their property for qualification purposes. 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. Both this clause, and also preventing homeowners from re-claiming any expenses for remedial work undertaken while awaiting a grant, force people to live in buildings which are collapsing around them.

3. Deleterious materials; The IS.465 protocol has been used as the standard to test and respond to the impact of deleterious materials, specifically pyrite and mica on the degeneration of defective blocks. However, there is currently considerable debate and material evidence of the impact of Pyrrhotite and Sulphide minerals. Where these are found, experts are recommending full demolition, including removal of foundations. To suggest remedial options (2-5), when there is national and international evidence, that the presence of such materials cause ongoing deterioration and structural failure, would not only be a dangerous dereliction of duty, but in the long-term, a monumental waste of taxpayers’ money.

4.

Unaccounted Costs; Provision is not made for the following: Demolition and site clearance Replacement of damaged windows and doors Replacement of damaged internal fixtures and fittings, which cannot be recycled.

No funding for plumbing, electrics, tiling, painting, i.e. 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.

In addition to the above, it is important to raise the deep concern felt in County Clare at our exclusion from any consultative process for this proposed new grant scheme. This right was extended to impacted homeowners in Mayo and Donegal, through the time-limited Working Group (July-Sept 2021). However, despite requests for the inclusion of representation from this county, including through questions raised in the Dáil and Seanad by Cathal Crowe TD (FF), Violet-Anne Wynne TD (SF), and Senator Timmy Dooley (FF) respectively, all requests were denied.

In this respect, although we are suffering the same devastating consequences of having defective blocks in our houses, we are blocked from any formal input into a consultative process on the largest remediation grant in the history of the State, to address this very problem. This is despite the fact that the evidence to warrant our inclusion, has been available to your Department since July 23rd. 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.

Impacted homeowners in County Clare, are asking you to consider the points above, in advance of any new scheme being undemocratically, or unconstitutionally vested upon us.

Yours sincerely, Dr. Martina Cleary PhD, MEd, MA. Chairperson Clare Pyrite Action Group

(Letter sent to the Minister on 16th Jan 2022. As with all communication from CPAG, there is no response to campaigners in Clare. Communication with campaigners in Donegal and Mayo from Dept. represenetatives and the Minister is ongoing at this time. Denial that there is a problem in Clare persists).

Jan 14th 2022

Dear All, Clare Pyrite Action Group - Protest & Solidarity Walk Clare Pyrite Action Group will hold a protest on Saturday 29th Jan, starting at 2:00PM from the Clare County Council building New Road Ennis V95 DXP2. From there we will walk towards the O’Connell monument, to raise awareness of our situation in this county.

More and more impacted homeowners are contacting the Clare Pyrite Action Group, asking for advice and help, but we are still being discriminated against and denied any assistance in dealing with this unfolding nightmare. The evidence asked for has been provided to Government. There is no question that we have Defective Concrete Blocks in this county. The test results are in, the facts undeniable. So there should be no further delay in extending a Grant, as has been provided in other counties. No more excuses. No more changing of the goalposts and rules for us.

All promises given so far have been broken, and every indication is we will be left waiting until our homes crumble and rot around us, before we can access any help, even if it comes. It will only be through speaking out now and raising your voices, that together we can bring about change.

We are asking you to show support by walking with us on Saturday 29th Jan. If your home is impacted, it is time to stand up for justice, and to demand access to equality and the help available to other taxpayers and voters in this country. If the home of your friends or extended family are impacted, or you suspect they might be impacted, come out and show your support for them. Even if you are not directly affected by this, we really need your support, for the sake of all those in County Clare, facing this nightmare through no fault of their own.

Come out and support the Banner. Equal Rights, Equal Help, Equal Justice For All. We have to calculate numbers attending, so please fill out the attached form, so we can count numbers. If you know others who will join us, please also forward on this email and attached form to them.

Together we are stronger!

Dr. Martina Cleary Clare Pyrite Action Group

The Ennis Rally (Jan 2022) Photograph by Mark Howard

The Ennis Rally - Protesters assemble outside the Clare County Council Main Offices (Jan 2022)

Photograph by Mark Howard

Assembling at The O’Connell Monument, Ennis (Jan 2022)

CPAG members joined by campaigners from Mayo, Donegal, Limerick and Sligo, at The O’Connell Monument Ennis (Jan 2022)

Campaigners from Clare, Mayo, Donegal and Sligo Speak Out at The Ennis Rally (Jan 2022)

Linda O Callaghan - Cooraclare “This government is running roughshod over the people of County Clare. This government is discriminating against the people of County Clare and all the residents of County Clare, not just those with pyrite in their houses. My house has cracks. My house has been assessed by an IS:465 qualified engineer.

There is a grant scheme available in this country to people with defective concrete blocks. They can apply to it. These people can get government funding to repair and in some cases, rebuild their houses. I can’t, nobody in County Clare can. We are being discriminated against purely on the grounds of geography. If my house was in Mayo I could apply. If my house was in Donegal I could apply. If my house was in Dublin I could apply to a scheme. My house isn’t, my house is in County Clare. The government aren’t slighting me, they are slighting County Clare and that is why every resident of County Clare should be furious. If you had an illness for which there is a cure but not available to you if you live in County Clare, only if you are a resident of Donegal or Mayo, there would be uproar and quite rightly so. Do we pay tax in County Clare? Yes. Do we pay USC in County Clare? Yes. Do we pay property tax in County Clare?

Yes. So why the discrimination? Why the exclusion?

Why are the government now looking for more proof from Clare County Council that it’s pyrite that’s causing the damage and not something else? Five houses from County Clare, across this county have had a chemical analysis of their blocks carried out. They have pyrite amongst other deleterious materials.

Two houses side-by-side built at the same time, mine and my neighbours. My house has cracks all over, my neighbors doesn’t. But it might have in time. And like my neighbors in Mayo and Donegal, we should be able to access the same help. This government has to end the discrimination now.”

(Above) Linda O’Callaghan and (right) Jamie Lee Donnelly speaking at the Ennis Rally (Jan 2022) Photos by Mark Howard

Jamie Lee Donnelly - Mayo “I’m sorry it’s under these circumstances that we’re here today. Like yourselves, I only found out just over a year and a half ago that I had pyrite in my home.

From that moment I was determined to do something about it, and I entered the Working Group. I sat at the table with the government officials, and I can tell you from first hand, they’re not willing to fix this problem the way it needs to be fixed. They’re not willing to do for the people of Ireland what they need to do. In fact, they’re willing to sit and tell me and the people of Mayo and Josephine and the people of Donegal that yes, they’re deserving of their futures, they’re deserving to have their houses fixed, they’re deserving to get it remediated and go back to living the family lives that they deserve. Yet the people of Clare, Kerry, Cork, Tipperary, Sligo and Limerick, you’re undeserving. You’re undeserving? That’s not good enough. It’s really not good enough.

I know what it’s like to be told that you can’t get on the scheme. As Martina touched on there, we had Simon Beale, the engineer that I had come out and assess my home. I applied for the Defective Concrete Block Scheme, and I was told I wasn’t eligible. Yet I had Petrolab come back with the scientific evidence that there were high levels of pyrite. The cracks were all over the walls. That same engineer had to come out to my house with a marker and draw every crack on my house and take more pictures before we were allowed onto this scheme. Now don’t get me started on the scheme. The current scheme wasn’t fit for purpose and the new scheme, well it’s worse. But it’s not until every homeowner on the island of Ireland is afforded the opportunity to remediate their homes as they see fit, not as the government see fit, as they see fit. To have their homes that they’ve built, and they bought, back. It’s only then that we’ll get the scheme

that we need. We can’t be relying on Donegal to put in a scheme that’s going to fit. That’s fit for purpose for everybody.

Every single homeowner has to be afforded the right to have their input into a scheme that’s going to fix their home, and it’s only then, when the government affords that right to every homeowner on the island of Ireland. This is not a mica problem in Donegal or a pyrite problem in Mayo. This is a defective concrete block problem on the island of Ireland and until the government of Ireland recognise that, then we are going to have to sit in our homes while they fall down around us. Lives are going to continue to be lost, because lives have been lost already. We’re going to continue to suffer from mental, physical, emotional and financial problems. And people’s lives aren’t going to go back to normal. And it’s just not good enough. It’s just not good enough.

I’m here to let you know today from the Mayo Pyrite Action Group, I was lucky that there were two women before us, Dorothy Keane and Josephine Murphy who worked tirelessly to get us onto that scheme. I’m here to let each and every one of you know that the Mayo Pyrite Action Group stands with each and every one of you. We’ll do whatever we can to ensure that Clare, Tipperary, Limerick, Cork, Kerry and I’ve only heard this morning Wexford are actually getting houses tested, and Sligo - That every person on the island of Ireland gets the opportunity to have their homes back.

To have their lives back. It’s not going to be fixed overnight, but we’re here with you and we’re standing with you, and we’ll do whatever we can to ensure that each and every one of us gets our homes back. Our businesses back, our lives back. Because that’s what’s at stake here, lives of the Irish citizens of Ireland.”

Dr. Martina Cleary - Crusheen “Why are we here today? Because there is pyrite in County Clare. There is pyrite in the defective blocks in the houses of County Clare. That’s in the north, south, east, west of this county, houses are becoming ticking timebombs, as the blocks in the outer and inner walls are damaged and deteriorating.

We already have houses that look as damaged and dangerous as what we are seeing in Mayo and Donegal. What we see with our eyes, is backed up also by tens of thousands of euros worth of scientific testing, and thousands of pages of reports, saying what we have is pyrite and other deleterious materials in the block. In fact, it’s so similar to what has been found in Mayo, the materials could have been taken from the same quarry. We have statements from Petrolab, one of the leading labs in Europe on this, and our consultant engineer who has already successfully prepared over 200 reports which qualified impacted homeowners in Mayo for access to the scheme has confirmed this, without the shadow of a doubt.

So, what is going on here? Why are homes in County Clare being denied help? Why are we being dragged down the road for month after month by nonsensical delays and time wasting? It took five months for one meeting and two emails to be sent between Clare County Council and the Department. The response from the Department of the Minister on December 6th, was not only an insult to the intelligence of the people of Clare. It was very apparent what was happening was an exercise in trying to force us, our experts and the Council into a prolonged game of ruling out a non-exhaustive, never-ending list of what might be causing the gaping holes and cracking in our homes, while blatantly ignoring the testimony of leading experts in the field, and the scientific results of core testing.

But why would they do this? Why delay the access of County Clare to the same equality of access and rights as homeowners just 100km up the road in Mayo? Because they are waiting for the new scheme to be passed through legislation. Haven’t our own TDs said so themselves, in our press and at our public meetings? As one so assuredly said, after a promise we would have the grant by Christmas came to nothing – “Sure it was never about a Grant for Clare, it was always about getting Donegal and Mayo sorted out first. And when the new scheme is up and running, we want Clare there at the starting blocks.” But the starting blocks of what exactly? I’m not sure he knows himself.

So, first of all. We are not only fed up with the delays and broken promises. We are not only tired and

angry at being treated as second class citizens. We also see through the charade being played out here.

The fact is this new scheme is worse than the last.

The fact is the big headline hype about an extended €420,000 euro cap, and 100% Redress is little more than a pipe dream. The devil is in the detail. Very few will see that kind of money, and the 100% does not cover demolition options. The fact is also that a new Damage Threshold clause, imported from the older Pyrite Remediation Scheme, will be used to delay and prevent access for up to 90% of people to this new scheme. The terms and conditions of what is coming, will be far worse than what was in place so far. So why are they keeping Clare out? To ensure we have no voice now to raise our concerns about this, through any recognised forum, to ensure when a grant is eventually extended, it will be as useless and inaccessible to us in this county as it will be to impacted homeowners elsewhere.

Many of you will be thinking, well surely some kind of grant is better than nothing. That demolition was never a route you were considering anyway. Now this is especially relevant in County Clare, where many of our impacted homeowners are of an age, that the thought of going through that kind of upheaval, at this time of your life, is just daunting. Many in this county have also been doing their best to maintain their homes, because there has been no grant available. Filling in the cracks, painting up the outside, covering the holes over with whatever means possible to keep the elements out for as long as possible.

Unfortunately, this kind of thinking and the reality of what we know is coming, just don’t coincide.

Entry to this new proposed scheme requires reaching a certain Damage Threshold. This means a government appointed official from a new Housing Agency will do a visual inspection of your house. If they can tick off a list (and you can be sure it will be a very very long list), of visible indicators of damage, then and only then, can you proceed to access the core testing stage. What this means, is that you can be left waiting years in a damaged and dangerously deteriorating building, before the core testing is carried out, to give an accurate and scientific analysis of what is in your blocks, and more worryingly how weakened they have become. This Damage Threshold has been imported from a scheme used to inspect underfloor heave and pyrite expansion. But it’s not the floors that hold up your roof, it’s the walls. As Dr. Ambrose McCloskey an IS: 465 engineer and expert in this area has noted, it is often the properties that look the least damaged to the eye, that on closer more rigorous core testing, reveal themselves to be the most compromised.

Dr. Martina Cleary speaking at The Ennis Rally (Jan 2022) Photo by Mark Howard

What does it mean for us here in Clare? That even the expertise of your engineer can be overruled. That you can be left sitting for years in a home that is structurally damaged, impossible to insure, sell on, or even repair, because to do anything to try and fix it up, means you won’t pass a visible Damage Threshold. It’s stalemate, the catch 22 scenario, which civil servants from the Department have strategically built into this new grant, to minimize access and cost. As for the appeals process, it is undefined, non-transparent and you can bet, will be tortuous. Now for those of you who are thinking, fine, my house is in such a bad state already. There are cracks all over it, gaping holes and nobody could deny the presence of defective blocks. Let me remind you,

that currently there are five rigorous 150-page reports from houses that have been fully core tested by leading experts, sitting on the table of the same officials who will be judging your own homes. Even with the kind of evidence provided, they are pretending it’s not the blocks. They are trying to overrule and question our consultant engineers position, and statements from the Technical Manager of Petrolab. Added to this is the weight of 100,000€ already spent on testing by Clare County Council, and the ongoing campaign of CPAG. As our engineer commented, this is very similar to what happened in Mayo over the summer, when 19 homeowners were arbitrarily denied access to the scheme.

This was despite the fact they had reports and core testing done, and despite the fact they were given a category 3 or 4, and demolition Option 1. It was only due to the sustained media campaign, and pressure of their activist groups, that those decisions were appealed and overturned. What I am saying to you here is that this new Damage Threshold clause will allow arbitrary, and very difficult to challenge decisions for eligibility to the scheme. We got a taster there of what’s coming down the road, with the treatment of those homeowners in Mayo.

We cannot allow it to be rolled out as it currently is, in this county, or we will see the same hardship, stress and suffering imposed on homeowners here.

For those that do get through all of that, the 100% Redress is not available for Option 1. The remediation options are now proving to be non-viable. This is because the true damage of the deleterious materials, particularly reactive sulphides (which we also have here in Clare), will mean that partial repairs cannot fix this. If you take down the outer walls, the inner walls will be exposed and accelerate the oxidation. They are weakened and continue to crack.

Also, the issue of foundations are problematic. Test Suite C, which is core testing of foundations is showing that leaving these in place is also a disaster. You cannot build upon rotting foundations, and these were excluded from the original IS: 465 scheme.

So, what is the solution here? What are we asking for?

Immediate and full acknowledgement by the Departmenet of the Minister that there is a defectiveconcrete block problem in County Clare also. No more nonsense and game playing. And a guarantee that we will be included in any scheme available elsewhere in this country.

Immediate cessation of non-democratic processes that perpetuate inequalities in developing the terms and conditions a new scheme.

This means that any further Working Group or stakeholder consultations, with impacted homeowners are transparent, truly representative, and reflective of the stakeholders from all impacted counties.

Removal of the Damage Threshold clause is a must.

This was appropriated from the Pyrite Remediation Scheme, as a not fit for purpose and unacceptable tier of unmediated regulation, totally inappropriate to the issue of defective concrete blocks. Admission to any new scheme must be based upon the supported right of the homeowner to procure independent qualified professional assessment in the evaluation of their home, as the only access and eligibility criteria.

Clarification on whether the IS:465 standard is appropriate, when other deleterious materials are presenting in the defective blocks and also foundations.

What scientific research and evidence substantiates the recommendation of remedial options, especially where IS:465 qualified engineers only support full demolition?

Finally, I will say, that under Article 40 of the Irish Constitution we are guaranteed equality before the law. All citizens of this country “shall be held equal before the law”. That means providing any regionally specific redress scheme is not only unethical, unjustifiable and unconscionable, it is unconstitutional.

The Constitution also declares that “the State will vindicate the property rights of every citizen. This means you have a right to own, transfer and inherit property. You also have a right to bequeath property upon your death. The State guarantees to pass no law to abolish these rights.” Leaving us in rotting homes, to die of the physical or mental impact of this. To leave our children and families worthless piles of defective block ridden properties, that can only be sold for demolition or abandoned, is a breach of the most basic of our constitutional rights under Irish law.”

Mary Hanley - Drumline “Linda mentioned there about getting your house on the map. We have done, Martina and myself have done quite a lot of research and we have houses all over County Clare. Now we do appreciate you coming here today, but what I would like you all to do is to talk to your neighbors, talk to your relations, talk to your friends, because you know, and I know, and they know.

Obviously, some of them are afraid. They’re nervous. They’re embarrassed and I was too.

I was very embarrassed when my house was cracking. I thought what are people going to say? But then I discovered that there was somebody else in County Clare who had the same problem and then I got in touch with Martina and thank God we have a large number of people now involved with the Clare Pyrite Action Group.

But we need more people because as far as I can see, Darragh O’Brien was down in my house on the 27th of August, and he was such a lovely man. He was so pleasant. He was so nice, and he was feeling so sorry for me, and I said to him if this grant doesn’t come in soon, I’ll be six foot under. His answer was, “oh not at all Mary, no.

A couple of weeks”. Well now, it’s a hell of a long time since the 27th of August and I haven’t seen or heard from Darragh O’Brien since.

And Darragh O’ Brien was supposed to meet our Oireachtas Committee members last Thursday at three o’ clock. He hasn’t seen them, and I don’t know why he didn’t see them. But as far as I can see lads, unless the people of county Clare get up, stand up like people in Donegal and the people in Mayo. Stand up and be counted! Because this is our first protest but unless something happens very soon, it won’t be the last.

It will be the first of many and every politician in this county, and I know the councillors and the TDs and senators, you all want to be back in your offices in two years’ time. Well then, you’d better get up and start talking to Darragh O’Brien. Because lads, he doesn’t listen to us. If, he doesn’t start listening to you. We won’t listen to you either, if you don’t do something!”

Mary Hanley speaking at The Ennis Rally (Jan 2022)

Seamus Maye - Sligo “Now in the first instance what we’re dealing with in this country with mica and pyrite, pyrrhotite etc., is a humanitarian crisis and it didn’t just happen. I’m going to give you a small bit of background and come back and I’m going to bring you through it and I’m going to offer some proposals. Maybe for solutions to the problems with these deleterious materials. They go back a long way, and I see some of my Fianna Fáil friends here, and they’re not going to thank me for what I have to say here. But you know the problem goes back fifty-five years and it’s down to the toxic relationship, a corrupt relationship between the construction materials sector and successive governments going back to the 1960’s. This has resulted in low standards or perhaps more accurately described as no standards, light touch regulation and zero enforcement. Later on, we will look at who should be paying the price because last year our government did, what it’s very very good at doing over the years, divide and conquer.

Last year they, the government played this ploy and trying to get ordinary taxpayers against victims. All this thing about the big houses in Donegal, and why should we as taxpayers have to go and build these mansions? They’re all supposed to be living in mansions. But the fact is we’re all together in this. Now where I think this whole thing has gone wrong and I’m going to be very candid here, because we have to be candid if we’re going to make progress going forward. Last June 16th there was an enormous protest in Dublin. Mostly down to the to the incredible work of Paddy Diver from Donegal. He put many many thousands of people on the streets. However, I think the people were somewhat hoodwinked because it has transpired, and I’m open to correction on this, but it has transpired that in the days prior to the 16th of June and this protest, which remember the protest was for 100% Redress. But in the days before the 16th of June apparently, government agreed with certain people, a few members, effected members, victims, that there would be a Working Group. Now Working Groups don’t work out! We’ve had them.

We had the Beef Task Force when the factories were all being blocked by the farmers. The government set up the Beef Task Force, which was all much ado about nothing. That’s exactly what’s going on. I’m not taking away from the efforts of all the people that are putting in all the time, but I’m saying there’s a huge naivety out there. This scheme as they call it, is going nowhere, because it can’t go anywhere, because it’s not about 100% Redress and never was about 100% Redress. While I’m at it, I can’t understand why any of the victims, nobody that I have

seen has called for compensation. In any country in the world, certainly any country in Europe, where a disaster like this would happen, not only would victims get their houses rebuilt. Whatever needs to be done with their houses and in a lot of cases it’s going to be full rebuilds, including foundations. But not only that, but each and every victim is entitled to compensation. So, what are we doing about this?

You know what they’re going to do next? They’re going to bring in legislation and we know about legislation. Legislation benefits the rich and it stymies the poor. You’ll all be in a trap because the legislation says this, and the legislation says that. You’re not within an ass’s roar of getting 100% Redress! This thing has to be completely re-looked at, revisited and start from scratch. And I would say to politicians and there’s a number of politicians here. Guys, girls we’ve got a cop on here. These aren’t cattle these are people! These are the citizens of this country that put you in Dáil Eireann to look after the public interest and you’re not! You’re scamming them!

Just a word on the discrimination. I mean the scheme, the scheme - no farm buildings, no commercial buildings, no second homes unless you’re registered. What sort of a scheme is that? I mean if you had a coffee shop down the road, or a house out the road, it’s all the same thing. They have been damaged. You’ve been damaged by this corruption and negligence through successive governments for over fifty years and everybody that has a problem with your building, no matter what it is, has the right to full compensation. Including compensation, full redress and compensation. When the Mahon Report was published, the famous Mahon corruption report, there’s a lot of very interesting stuff in it. But he said that he found a lot of politicians and business people all involved in very serious corruption. He said that these guys all operated with a justified sense of impunity and invincibility. That’s what legislation does.

It buries the ordinary people.

I think I did refer earlier to this thing where government really has been choreographing. And if you ask Joe McHugh in Donegal, he’s a Fine Gael TD and indeed Charlie McGonagle, what actually went on before June 16th, because that’s very important. We went to Dublin for 100% Redress. We didn’t get it.

We didn’t get anything. We got a Working Group and that is now involved in being choreographed by government. I’m not blaming the victims, but they’re being choreographed into this scheme. So, guys, ladies this is going nowhere.

Seamus Maye speaking at The Ennis Rally (Jan 2022)

Now just in relation to solutions and I just want to suggest a couple of small things. In any other country in Europe, which I referred to earlier, in a situation like this, victims would be able to avail of what they call a class action, a legal action where all victims could put their name down in the one pot, in one single action. They’re done in America, they’re done in Europe, they’re done all over the world. But Ireland has a serious issue with regard to access to justice. We’re actually the laughing stock of Europe because the small man can’t get justice, whether he’s a farmer, whether he’s a pyrite victim, whether he’s a small business. So the EU recognise this, and they brought in a directive in 2020. Directive 1828 which is on representative actions. So that directive is in place and our government have to have that in place by the end of this year, by December 2022, and up and running by June 2023. Now people will say, but our government never brings in directives when they should. They delay and yes, they do. But I mean if you’re not calling for it, and I would be very critical of the Working Group here. They have not called for the transposition of this directive into Irish law. Because the minute we have a representative action or a class action, the show is over, the game is over, all victims will be fully compensated, including as I keep referring to, compensation for all the heartache and trauma that they’ve been through. So, we need to transpose European directive 1828 into Irish law. Not next December, we need to do it now, and I have spoken to lawyers, and I am speaking with lawyers that are willing to get involved in this transposition process, and in setting up a class action. With a class action what happens is you sign up to it effectively and you go home, and you get on with your life. The experts take it over, not just for one of you, but for all of you. For thousands, whatever thousands are involved.

The other thing that I’d like to read out to you, I think that’s quite important is article 47 of the EU charter of fundamental rights, which is actually European law. Now this is very important. It’s a very short article 47, a charter of fundamental rights of the European Union. Everyone whose rights and freedoms guaranteed by the law of the Union are violated, has the right to an effective remedy before a tribunal in compliance with the conditions laid down in this article. Everyone is entitled to a fair and public hearing within a reasonable time, by an independent and impartial tribunal previously established by law i.e. a court or a tribunal. Everyone should have the possibility of being advised, defended and represented.

Legal aid shall be made available to those without sufficient resources insofar as such aid is necessary to ensure effective access to justice.

Now Ireland, have you ever heard of that up in Kildare St., because that’s the law of Europe. Why are you being run down this cattle crush into a scheme that’s never going to work?

Another proposal I think we need to do is, we need to set up a central office, an office that would be probably a semi state type office to oversee civil projects in this country. Because we know one thing.

We know that the Department can’t do it. They’re incompetent. When you look at the National Children’s Hospital, it is six times over budget. Six times what was originally budgeted at €400 million. It’s now at €2.4 billion and rising. So that’s what’s going to happen. We’re hearing about €2.2 billion for pyrite and mica etc. It’s not going to be €2.2 billion if we let these people control it. It’s going to be four or five times that. It’s going to be €10 billion. The government have to understand there’s a huge problem here and it has to be faced up to. It’s going to cost quite a lot of money. It’s not going to cost €2.2 billion it’s going to cost a hell of more! But let me tell you, if you go back ten or twelve years ago, when the poor banks, who had been acting criminally for years and years and years. When the banks went bust it took hours to bail them out. At 2:00 am in the morning, in someone’s private house they’re meeting, and the announcement was made the following morning. So, if the banks are that important what’s wrong with the people?

Just coming to the end of it now. You know there’s a lot of lateral thinking as well that’s needed. For example, there’s a lot of old people around all these effected counties and maybe they might be considering downsizing. Maybe they might like to go into a little cluster development on the edge of the village for their latter years. All of this lateral thinking needs to be applied to this current crisis and the best thing done for everyone. Now if somebody is sizing down, downsizing their house, obviously they will need to get compensation just the same as if it was some of the ordinary folks selling their house and moving into a smaller one. There would be money left over.

So, we’re getting to the tricky bit now. Well just before that, one other thing as well you know, as these houses are being rebuilt, we should be looking at the BER ratings, the insulation standards, all of that because I believe that people who are getting their homes rebuilt. They should be rebuilt to the standards of today which is the maximum insulation. That’s only saving the state. It’s saving on Co2 emissions.

It’s a no brainer, but I haven’t heard that mentioned at all. I won’t really go into IS:465. It’s a scam. It’s planted in there and it’s going to cause mayhem for years to come. Until the government cop on.

Campaigners from Clare, Mayo, Donegal, Limerick and Sligo at The Ennis Rally including (left to right), Seamus Hanley, Theresa Maloney, Michael Kelly, Jamie Lee Donnelly, Danny Maloney, Steve Mansfield, Dr. Martina Cleary, Mary Hanley, Seamus Maye, Josephine Kelly, Anne Ryan (Jan 2022). Photo by Mark Howard.

Now who’s going to pay for all this? Who’s going to pay all these billions? Now the primary guilty parties, the primary culprits are the quarries and their associates, successive governments. So, the state and the quarries, they’re the people who have to pay for this. Now the insurance companies seem to be getting out of this scot free. And there is insurance within the Irish Concrete Federation that have their own scheme. So, I can’t understand, because it seems to me that successive governments are protecting all these people, and they’re going to make taxpayers pay the bill. That’s not on. I will just tell you something now about who owns the quarries. The construction material sector in this country has been dominated by a company called CRH PLC, which would have numerous subsidiaries, like Irish cement in Limerick and Roadstone and hundreds of other subsidiaries. Now CRH PLC operates a structure.

It’s a criminal structure. It’s an illegal structure, whereby they actually control a lot of the supposed independent producers.

So, you could be buying your concrete from Johnny Smith down the road and you think that Johnny Smith has a better price than Roadstone, when in fact the two of them are together, they’re all under the one roof. Now successive governments again have failed to look into the structures, because there’s a mafia in operation in the building materials sector. So, I say that we need to know who is the ultimate owner? Who are the beneficial owners of all these quarries around the country? And if they have deep pockets, which you will find, in a lot of cases they do, they should be made to pay.”

Mapping the extent of impacted homes in Clare Dr. Martina Cleary continues research with growing CPAG membership (Spring 2022)

Dr. Paschal Carmody

Killaloe Interview with Dr. Martina Cleary (April 2022) When we finally got permission, we decided we would build a family home for life, and we spared nothing. We employed the best architects, builders, engineers and everybody to do a quality home as good as we could afford at the time. Work commenced in April to 1989, and it was completed one year later in April 1990. We moved in here in the middle of April 1990 with five small children my wife Frieda and I. The house was wonderful and beautiful.

Everything about it was as nice as we expected, and it remained that way for seven years. Then we noticed there were cracks appearing outside the house which was of some concern. We called back the builder and the architect and the engineers to have a look at it and give an opinion. They did and they said it’s nothing more than setting cracks, which was very pleasing to us. They advised just to paint over them and close them and it would be fine. Two years later these cracks opened and became much wider, so we called these experts again and they advised that we open the cracks and then replaster the cracks.

The tradesmen who were doing that did as directed, but said”I don’t believe this is the problem. I believe the problem is more sinister, but I have to do what I’m advised to do” and he completed that.

Things remained so until 2007 and then we were advised by experts who have been through this, to employ a company in the UK doing research work into building materials. They come over at the end, charged the King’s ransom and in the end the report was worthless.

We didn’t know what to do for five more years. Then a visitor called to see me one Saturday morning and he said, “well

what’s the matter, what’s the problem with your home?” I said we don’t know. We’ve gone through extraordinary means to try and find out what’s wrong. There’s ingress of dampness, the house is cold, it’s impossible to heat. The clothes are damp in the wardrobes. The carpet is damp and we’re still at a loss to find out why all this has happened. We did consult with our architect previously and he suggested that we replace the roof. We replaced the roof with fiberglass, the whole roof which again cost an awful lot of money, nearly one hundred thousand. We thought now at least we have a home.

The cracks continued and became more diffuse and wider. Then the renders began to lift. The fiberglass roof did make a difference for some time, and we thought that had resolved the problem, but what was happening was the walls were expanding.

There was a divide between the fiberglass and the wall, so further dampness started to ingress. Water started coming in through the ceiling. We only discovered the real problem in 2012. Then we contacted Roadstone, and we made it quite clear that we have suspicions about the material supplied to us to build our home.

They were quite cooperative, and they sent out their chief manager from the Munster region to ascertain what was going on. He arranged for a builder to come out and take out samples. He took out sixteen samples of eight blocks and replaced them with new blocks. These were analysed by both parties. Ours came back positive for pyrite, but Roadstone said their samples were perfect - What we’ve analysed from the samples taken are perfect. It contains no material that could effect what’s happened to your home.

(Above and following) Exterior and interior of Carmody home, Killaloe (April 2022)

The samples we examined came back strongly positive for pyrite and other abnormal materials. That remained so, to and fro until 2019. So, the managing director of Roadstone sent down three of his top experts and made it quite clear, they were their top experts in the company. They came down on the 2nd of May 2019. We had engineers, architects, builders and other people expert in the field. They had their three experts, and they began to present to us with what was suitable for them. They were showing us that they had done, all these studies which proved to them that what they gave us was perfect. Halfway through the meeting I had to object, that it’s my opinion that they had not been transparent - You have not been honest, and I would like to stop the meeting, and if you agree we have two standing by that will take four blocks at random, at any part of the house. My daughter who was there, she picked a site, and they took out four blocks which were completely rotten. They were so bad that they could break up the blocks with their hands. I asked them to take a piece of the block back to their head office, have it analysed again, and the comment was that, this is the worst case we’ve seen of degeneration of the home. They said it would have to be resolved

by Roadstone, this can’t go on. They took some material with them and then I asked, do you want to reconvene the meeting? They said no, we’ve seen enough it’s terrible. It will have to be resolved by Roadstone, and this matter will have to be sorted out. They left and a month later I got a letter from the managing director, stating the same thing, what we gave you was perfect. Ignoring the findings of their three experts. They’ve continued to ignore my correspondence since then, saying in the same mantra, what we gave you was perfect.

We spent at least thirty thousand analysing. Then it cost about one hundred thousand to replace all the roof. It cost seven more thousand to repair all the cracks, replace them and all that. They refused at all times. They offered that we take the blocks back.

But they wouldn’t give us the analysis, their analysis.

We have ours done by a very reputable company.

They have theirs done and they say, what we analysed is perfect. Now when their own builder was taking out the blocks, he was a builder from Limerick, and each block he took out, he put it in

the wheelbarrow. He said to me, “Paschal how can you watch this?” It dissolved into dust. Every one of them right around the whole house. We took out a very large, very large part of the concrete and replaced it with new render. That remained for two years and that dissolved again. The managing director in Roadstone in Tallaght, he has corresponded with me at least thirty times. He said, and he is saying, what we gave you was perfect. Yet, I ask him for the results of the analysis carried out and he refused and continues to refuse to this day. The three experts admitted and said, this is the worst case we have seen, and that Roadstone will have to resolve this problem. You could break it up. The very same as you take a fresh cutting of a sod of turf from a bog. You could break it like that.

So, despite all the efforts to resolve it in a fair way with the suppliers of the material, who should have honored this and who should know that this shouldn’t happen or couldn’t happen. They still keep on with the same denial, which is to me is nothing short of criminal denial. I can’t think of anything else. If any other company did this there would be prosecutions. There would be a responsibility for the state to rectify and correct this. And they keep on saying the same thing. Despite the evidence proven that what was given to us was defective and dangerous.

It’s my home and I have some place. I have to live some place, and we have to make do with what we have. I can tolerate cold a lot more than my wife and that’s understandable. In the winters our heating bill is astronomical from what it used to be. Trying to keep the place from falling down literally, we have to keep heating on all the time. The mold in all the rooms, especially the bedrooms. It’s a continuous effort and a continuous expensive effort. So, it is our home for now, but for how long we don’t know.

We’ve been advised by the engineers that it’s not fit for habitation, and that we should leave for safety, and for our children’s safety. It has gone so extreme, my youngest son who is a doctor, he works in London. He’s very reluctant to come home because he gets asthmatic attacks, which is very unpleasant. We also have some symptoms indicative of mold, and it is a constant problem.

I guess I can only speculate…the size. Money speaks. They’re the third wealthiest company in the world in supplying building material. They cover the world, they can take this attitude by saying, what we gave you was perfect. Despite their three top engineers, technical engineers, saying in the presence of eleven witnesses, recorded, photographed and still a month later their director will come back and say, what we gave you was perfect. In the nicest glossiest legal language, you can be presented with. Which is obviously not the language of the managing director, but the language of a high-profile legal firm. And this is what we find extraordinary. That they abuse the victims further.

We are the victims of this. We have suffered enormously, continuously and to replace a home today is frighteningly expensive.

The government have a responsibility to look after their people.

The politicians have a responsibility to look after their people.

The government have an act that they have to comply with, that states what is supplied should be in keeping with the best standards and proper standards. They didn’t do that. They have made no effort whatsoever to try and resolve this. Of course the government should resolve this. They have a duty of care. They cannot ignore that and say, that Roadstone said what they gave you was perfect. Come down and walk around. All you need is a little hammer and open the render and take out all the dust you want. You don’t have to be any kind of expert to see that this is grossly unjust. That they allow this to go on. It wouldn’t, I couldn’t see this happening in any other country.

Dr. Paschal Carmody at his home in Killaloe (April 2022)

The issue of Defective Concrete Blocks, containing deleterious materials, particularly Pyrite, Mica and Reactive Sulphates is one currently impacting thousands of homeowners in the western seaboard counties of Ireland. As walls crack and homes crumble, the financial, legal and psychological consequences on very ordinary people is becoming a widening crisis, affecting all parts of our communities. In November 2021 the Irish Government announced a revised Grant Scheme, to cost the Irish State a historic €2.2 billion to address the problem. However this Grant Scheme, which has yet to be passed into legislation, is based upon limited research and is also currently geographically restricted to two counties, leaving thousands beyond hope of any assistance at all.

The aim of this online conference is to initiate discussion and encourage further research into this issue. As the scale and scope of the problem broadens, so too does the need to establish a community of expertise to address the widening crisis.

The conference will be held ovear two days, with thematic focus on the following areas; Living with Defective Concrete Blocks - Impacted Homeowner Perspectives, Engineering and Technical Analysis, Governance and Regulation, Rebuilding Options and Future Thinking, Physical and Mental Health Impacts.

This event was organised by Dr. Martina Cleary, Lecturer Dept of Fine Art & Education, LSAD. Programme Monday 30th May 10:00 - 10:10 Registration 10:10 – 10:20 Conference Introduction, Dr. Martina Cleary, Lecturer, LSAD, TUS, CPAG Chairperson.

10:20 – 10:50 Eoin Ó Broin Keynote - ‘Who is Responsible for Building Defects & Defective Building Materials & Who Should Pay for Remediation’ 10:50 – 11:10 Josephine Murphy & Connor O’Donnell, ‘Emergence of the Problem in County Mayo’.

11:10 – 11:30 Dr. Martina Cleary, ‘Overview of Defective Blocks in County Clare’.

11:30 – 11:50 Rose Conway Walsh TD, ‘The Pyrite Journey - A Mayo Perspective’.

11:50 – 12:10 Panel Discussion Chaired by Mary Hanley Vice Chair CPAG 12:10 – 12:30 Fiona Mc Garry, Lecturer In Journalism and Communication NUIG & Journalist for The Clare Champion, ‘Reporting on Clare’s Pyrite Crisis - The Centrality of Human Interest Sources’.

Lunch Break 12:30 – 13:30 13:30 – 13:50 13:50 – 14:10 14:10 – 14:30 14:30 – 14:50

Simon Beale, Consultant Engineer, ‘Defective Concrete Blocks in Mayo & Clare’.

Aidan O’Connell Structural Engineer AOCA, Fellow Engineers Ireland, National Overview.

Bradley Staniforth Petrolab UK, ‘Petrographic Analysis of Deleterious Materials.’

Corinne Garner, Senior Mineralogist, Petrolab, ‘The Mundic Problem’.

14:50 – 15:10 Panel Discussion- Chaired by Dr. Martina Cleary CPAG 15:10 – 15:30 Coffee Break 15:30 – 15:45 Mairéad Phelan, Head of National Building Control & Market Surveillance, ‘Standards and Regulations’. 1 5:45 – 16:00 Seamus Maye, International Small Business Alliance, ‘Liability, Access to Justice, Solutions’.

16:00 – 16:15 Alan Carr Lecturer, Dept of Built Environment TUS, ‘Between house and home: an overview of risk and liability’.

16:15 – 16:30 Panel Discussion Tuesday 31st May 9:50 - 10:00 Registration 10:00 – 11:15 Donal Byrne - Big Red Barn Alan Ledwidth- Terratonics- Foundations For The Future Gerard Clarke - Fast-House Timber Frame Jonathan Ballantine - Ballantine Building Solutions LTD Q&A 11:15 - 11:30 Coffee Break 11:30 – 11:45 Dr. Tom Woolley, Hemp Co-Operative Ireland, ‘Natural Building Techniques, Ecological Methods and Materials’.

11:45 – 12:00 Sally Starbuck, accredited Client Advisor, &, Environmental Architect of Gaïa ecotecture, ‘Collaborative construction at The ecoVillage Cloughjordan - community cooperation and collective purchasing power’.

12:00 – 12:15 Sue Corcoran, Lecturer Dept of Built Environment, TUS ‘Considering Living Spaces’ 12:15 – 12:30 Panel Discussion - Chaired by Dr. Rita Scully Dept of Built Environment TUS. 12:30 – 13:30 Lunch Break 13:30 – 13:50 Insecurity’ 13:50 – 14:10 14:10 – 14:30 14:30 – 14:50 14:50 – 15:00

Dr. Lorcan Byrne, Lecturer in Dept of Applied Social Sciences, TUS, ‘Impacts of Housing Cyril Hyland, Lets Get Talking – ‘The Experience and Impact of Loss’ Dr. Michael Carmody, ‘Living in A Condemned Home’.

Panel Discussion - Chaired by Dr. Lisa O’Rourke Scott, Head of Discipline, Psychology, TUS. Close of Conference

Extract of presentation by Dr. Martina Cleary at TUS conference, based upon surveys conducted with 90 impacted homewoners in Clare (Spring 2022)

Extracts from presentations by Dr. Martina Cleary, Aidan O’Connell and Bradley Stanifoth at TUS conference (May 2022)

CPAG members join campaigners from Donegal, Mayo, Limerick and Sligo outside the Dáil (June 2022)

(Above) Campaigners from Clare, Mayo and Donegal participating in the Oireachtas Joint Committee meeting on the DCB Scheme (June 2022), (Right) Extract from Dr. Martina Cleary’s statement.

CPAG join campaigners from Donegal, Mayo, Limerick and Sligo before Dáil debate on DCB Grant Scheme (July 2022)

Silence

During the Autumn of 2022 as impacted homeowners in Clare await the launch of the new DCB Grant Scheme, there is no communication from the Dept. on how this willl be administered in Clare.

CPAG meets with LA in Nov 2022 requesting updates.

They too are awaiting clarification from the Dept.

In Dec 2022 Draft Regulations are circulated to local County Councillors, for “stakeholder input”.

Meanwhile in Mayo and Donegal hundreds of applicants on the previous DCB Grant Scheme are processed by the LA, or forwarded to the Housing Agency for determination.

TIME LIVING WITH IMPACT: 2 years, 4 months

AUTUMN 2022

Talking in Circles While Homes Crumble

In late Jan 2023 the Draft Regulations are released for comment by all interested parties.

CPAG hold online meeting for stakeholder input, inviting all local County Councillors.

From Feb to March 2023, representatives from the Action Groups in Clare, Limerick, Mayo and Donegal are inivited to six online meetings with representatives of the Dept. and the Housing Agency to discuss our stakeholder feedback.

The Minister attends one of these meetings in March 2023.

The SCSI have yet to be commissioned by the Dept. to provide rebuild and remediation rates for Clare and Limerick.

CPAG campaign for these to be provided without further delay and the provision of facilitators at a local level, to help homeowners navigate the complex grant application process.

CPAG continue to lobby to ensure local readiness of administrative and online systems to process applications once the scheme is finally open.

CPAG joins Action Groups in Mayo and Donegal, in having sample homes tested for black mold exposure.

Delays in access to the grant for Clare homeowners are raised at the second meeting of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on the DCB Scheme in July 2023.

At the end of July 2023 the online portal finally opens for grant applicants in Clare, a full year after the county is admitted to the grant scheme.

TIME LIVING WITH IMPACT: 3 years

SPRING/SUMMER 2023

Extract from submission to the Oireachtas Joint Committee meeting on DCB GrantScheme (July 2023).

Delay, Deflection and Avoidance

By the August Bank Holiday 2023, I have submitted all materials required for the application process for the grant.

It is three years to the day since I first discovered defective blocks in the cornerstone of my home.

Due to the new Damage Threshold qualification requirement, I cannot fill or repair the widening cracks or the gaping hole in the exterior wall.

Rodents are now getting into the external wall cavity.

Instead of the sound of blocks cracking, its their furtive scurring about thats now keeping me awake at night.

In Sept 2023 I am visited by the HA to assess if I meet the Damage Threshold to qualify for the Scheme.

I am told that while I obviouusly do, (the damage is so apparent), my application cannot progress until “a certain quantum” of applications have been received from Clare.

Clarification and a decision is also withheld on whether the extensive scientific report, including core testing of my home, which formed part of the submission to evidence pyrite in the county will be accepted.

Or, whether I will have to go through another year of repeated core testing.

CPAG holds a number of meetings in Ennis during the Autumn of 2023, to discuss the application process and progress, or lack of it.

CPAG attends meeting of the Implementation Sub-Group of the Implementation Steering Group for the New Scheme in Dublin.

Reccommendations to the Banking Federation of Ireland, The Insurance Federation of Ireland, Dept. of Finance, the Dept. of Housing and Engineers Ireland, to ensure remediated properties can be re-mortgaged and fully insured, remain unactioned by government.

In Nov 2023 I attend meetings with the PETI Committee of the European Parliament in Donegal, providing a statement on defective concrete blocks in Clare.

By Dec 2023, while 49 applications have been submitted, no grants have yet been extended to Clare homeowners.

TIME LIVING WITH IMPACT: 3 years, 4 months

AUTUMN 2023

Campaigners from Donegal, Clare and Mayo meeting with the PETI Committee of the European Parlliament in Letterkenny (Nov 2023)

Defective Concrete Blocks in County Clare Submission to the Delegation of Members of the Committee on Petitions of the European Parliament Dr. Martina Cleary (Nov 2023)

“Every EU citizen enjoys the same fundamental rights based on the values of equality, non-discrimination, inclusion, human dignity, freedom, and democracy. These values are fortified and protected by the rule of law, spelled out in the EU Treaties and the Charter of Fundamental Rights” (1).

The problem of defective blocks in Ireland, contrary to general belief is not confined to only the two counties of Donegal and Mayo. Despite the consistent use of the label mica, particularly in the mainstream media, this issue is not limited to this one problematic mineral only. Nor is the problem of defective concrete blocks containing pyrite, to be confused with the defects addressed by the Pyrite Resolution Scheme (2022). It is now legally acknowledged by the Irish government, that the issue of defective concrete blocks also exists in counties Clare and Limerick. However, as was noted in the Joint Oireachtas Committee Debate (2022) (2), this problem is suspected to impact at least thirteen Irish counties. That is at least half of the country.

The Irish Government was formally notified of the problem of defective concrete blocks in County Clare in Autumn (2020). Following community-based lobbying by members of Clare Pyrite Action Group (CPAG), the Local Authority, Clare County Council, requested the extension of the Defective Concrete Blocks Grant Scheme (2020) to County Clare on October 8th (2020). The letter was addressed directly to Mr. Graham Doyle, Secretary General of the Department of Housing, Local Government & Heritage (DHLGH) (appendix 1). Since then, homeowners in Clare have

experienced three years of protracted denial, obfuscation, delay, and discrimination, compounding the already escalating damage to their deteriorating homes. The response of the Irish government, particularly the DHLGH in its treatment of these homeowners, includes breaches of several articles of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union In May (2022) it was estimated that there are potentially 1,025 impacted homes in County Clare.

This figure is based on investigative fieldwork, surveys and interviews conducted with ninety members of CPAG from Sept (2020) - April (2022). Many of these homeowners are living on large private or public housing estates, so the methodology used

by Donegal and Mayo Local Authorities, of counting all houses in larger developments, where at least one house is affected was applied in quantification.

Seventy-eight present of those interviewed have an engineer’s report completed and of these, sixty-five percent are by a registered IS:465 engineer. There are seventeen private and five public housing estates believed to be impacted, as well as twelve larger-scale public or private buildings, including as of June (2023), a large Garda Station in Shannon.

The dates of construction of the homes known to CPAG span the period 1970 to 2013, with the years 1989, 1990, 1992 and 2006 having the highest numbers recorded so far. It is evident from this research, that the production and release of defective concrete blocks into the market in this region, has been ongoing for over four decades and is not just a Celtic Tiger era, phenomenon. All parts of the county, and all forms of dwellings are effected, with higher concentrations being in areas such as Newmarket on Fergus, Sixmilebridge, Kilrush, Kilkee, Drumline and Ennis. Sixty-nine percent of respondents have identified CRH Roadstone as the supplier of the concrete blocks used in the construction of their homes, with the quarries at Roadstone Bunratty and Toonagh being the main sources. Homeowners stated they were certain of this through having receipts of purchase, or paying the supplier directly, or having the source confirmed by their builder (3). In addition to this ongoing research with members of CPAG, two reports have been submitted by Clare County Council to Government, in July (2021) and May (2022) (appendix 2 & 3), based upon detailed engineering reports by Simon Beale & Associates a company with extensive expertise on this problem in Mayo, and core testing with petrographic analysis conducted by Petrolab UK. For these reports to government, ten properties in Clare were tested, five private and five from Local Authority holdings.

Breach of Article 20 – Equality before the Law Since the commencement of the campaign for access to the DCB Grant Scheme in September (2020), homeowners in Clare have been subjected to ongoing, sustained, and systematic inequalities by the Irish State. Research has revealed that awareness of the problem of defective concrete blocks in Clare stretches back years. Interviews revealed several instances of homeowners notifying the supplier of an issue with failing blocks, of visits from representatives of the supplier, of testing being carried out, both by the supplier and homeowner commissioned engineers or labs. Of results being returned as “inconclusive” by non-homeowner sourced labs. Of denials of findings where results were available following independent homeowner commissioned testing, or in certain instances denial of access to findings from blocks or cores extracted by the supplier.

Several homeowners spoke of houses in the locality that had been partially remediated, or entirely demolished and rebuilt. Some even claimed that NDAs had been signed by locals who couldn’t speak of the matter. In (2018) local Fine Gael TD Joe Carey raised the issue of pyrite in Clare homes in the Dáil, a point he would return to in Sept (2021) when he insisted it was a matter he had also raised with the CEO of Clare County Council in 2018 (4&5).

Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien when a senator, also spoke of his knowledge of “reports of cases (of pyrite) in Mayo and Clare” as early as (2012) (6). Ironically, he was also lobbying at the time for extension of the statute of limitations for those impacted by the issue in this same address to the Seanad. The statute of limitations was never extended. However, in Autumn (2020), when CPAG raised the problem and extent of pyrite in the homes of Clare, homeowners were faced by a wall of denial, which would be maintained by both the Local Authority and government for almost two full years.

The arbitrary denial of access to any form of grant scheme based on geographical location, which forms part of the eligibility criteria of the previous and current DCB Grant Scheme (2022), is a fundamental breach of Article 20, of the EU Charter protecting equality before the law. For impacted homeowners in Clare, this enshrined systemic inequality and denial of equal access to a taxpayer funded redress scheme available elsewhere in the same country, within legislation. It took three years and an arduous public campaign to force the Irish government to allow Clare homeowners hope of accessing equal assistance. While Clare was finally included as a qualifying county in June (2022), it would be a full thirteen months after this before the scheme opened for applications to Clare homeowners in July (2023).

Limerick was also added at this time, with a number of properties also core tested. While it is known from campaign groups in Sligo and Wexford that IS:465 reports and core testing evidence a similar problem in these counties, impacted homeowners in these areas continue to be excluded from any grant scheme, thereby also treated unequally by the Irish State.

In July (2021) the designed consultant engineers reports, including results of the core testing of five private homes in Clare, all conducted within the stipulated guidelines of the DCB Scheme and IS:465 regime, and identical to those which had already qualified over two-hundred homes in Mayo for access, were submitted to the DHLGH by Clare County Council. After a six-month delay, a letter issued on December 6th (2021) (appendix 4) from the Department stated that the evidence didn’t support the case made for Clare.

Additional and prohibitively costly evidence would have to be produced. Evidence which also entirely exceeded the stipulations of the testing regime applied for qualification in Mayo and Donegal.

For the impacted homeowners in Clare, after fifteen months of enduring the continuous stress of the relentless lobbying needed to get this far, including securing the funds for testing of €35,000, this response was incomprehensible.

Added to the trauma of realising all of these homes were so badly impacted by pyrite, that demolition was likely the only viable option. There was the compounded injustice of the stubborn refusal of the Irish government to accept the evidence submitted, as equal and sufficient. It would take over €100,000 of funding for testing, far exceeding that which had qualified Mayo and Donegal homes for assistance, and seven more months before “incontrovertible” proof could be produced.

What the DHLGH insisted must be evidenced, was as the consultant engineer described it, like finding a reaction less than the width of a human hair, in a house full of six-thousand blocks. The government had changed the qualification regime for Clare, to make it as excessively prohibitive, and technically impossible to achieve, as it could do. As a legal expert at the time also observed, this was very likely a delaying strategy, ensuring the clock was ticking down for many impacted homeowners, who would fall outside the statute of limitations by the time this evidence was produced. It is also notable that County Limerick does not seem to have been put through this arduous additional testing regime. Results from Clare sufficed, perhaps due to the recognition of a shared source for the blocks. Results of core testing conducted on private homes in Limerick were also retained by the Local Authority, without the same provision of access to a homeowner sourced independent engineer. The county was quietly added to the DCB Scheme at the same time as Clare in June (2022).

However, despite finally being able to apply to the DCB Scheme in July (2023), none of the five homeowners who underwent this rigorous testing and analysis in Clare, have been provided with a remediation decision by the Housing Agency. This is despite the fact, that all have core testing completed and detailed reports, each costing €7,000, comparative to those enabling decisions for homeowners in Mayo and Donegal, within both the (2020) and the more recent (2022) DCB Grant Scheme. Both the Minister of Housing and the Housing Agency officials have consistently and repeatedly refused to provide confirmation that these homeowners will not be subjected to yet further months, possibly years of additional testing. In short, the government is treating reports of identical quality, rigour, detail, and scope, carried out by the same engineering company and petrographic laboratory, unequally for Clare homeowners. This ongoing denial, refusal, blocking and attempts to treat the evidence from Clare as inconclusive, insufficient, or discount it entirely, raises questions as to who the Irish Government is actually serving here. It is certainly not treating all citizens of Ireland equally.

In drawing up the legislation of the DCB Grant

Schemes (2020) & (2022) and all other remediation schemes to redress the numerous building defects manifesting in Ireland, the Irish Government is in fact writing systemic, exclusionary inequalities into law.

Breach of Article 38 - Consumer protection.

Union policies shall ensure a high level of consumer protection.

The scientific testing conducted on the ten properties in County Clare, submitted in the second report to government in May (2022), prove that the production of concrete blocks in Ireland was not sufficiently regulated. Of the ten properties tested in County Clare, the total sulphate content in the concrete blocks from each property significantly exceeded the 0.1% value of Annex E of IS 465:2018+A1:2020. Values ranged from 0.53% to 0.87% (appendix 5). In addition, “It was abundantly clear, categoric and incontrovertible from all of the testing...that the presence of pyrite including reactive ‘framboidal’ pyrite was present in the aggregate used to manufacture the concrete blocks in each case. Thus, the aggregate was not suitable for use in the manufacture of concrete blocks due to its potential to deteriorate” (appendix 4, p.5). The professional geologists of Petrolab also noted additional sulphide minerals were observed in all projects and included ettringite and thaumasite. The years of construction of all ten properties tested ranged from 1981 to 2006, evidencing a period of twenty-five years within which defective concrete blocks were permitted onto the Irish market. Of the five private homes tested, all were recommended Option 1, demolition.

The refusal of the Irish Government to introduce and enforce independent regulation of the Irish building industry, to provide a high level of consumer protection for homebuyers began in 1960’s. The Law Reform Commission (1977) already noted, “an inordinate amount of inconsistencies and injustices” within Irish law, which “shield builders and sellers of defective homes from liability”(7). Self-certification of the industry by the industry, was introduced in (1989)

by Minister Padraig Flynn, despite warnings at the time that it would lead to poor consumer protection.

The result has been an abdication of duty by the Irish State, to properly protect Irish citizens against malpractice, light-touch or non-regulation, allowing industry to bypass oversight, accountability or the consumer protections which should be guaranteed under European law. The ‘Regulation of Providers of Building Works and Miscellaneous Provisions Act (2022)’ (8), does not fix this problem. In fact, it doesn’t even cover the regulation of suppliers, instead allowing indus try to continue to self-inspect and self-certify.

There is absolutely no protection under current Irish legislation to prevent suppliers from producing further defective concrete blocks and products for the market.

For the ordinary homeowner, the scale and influence of certain suppliers also make litigation prohibitively costly if not impossible. CRH, identified by many in Clare as the source of their blocks, is the largest company in the state. Some have described their position and influence as being cartel-like, holding a monopoly over the building industry and market. All promises by the Minister of Housing and local TDs that suppliers would be pursued, with an investigation opened by the Office of the Attorney General, have not been acted upon. Calls for a public inquiry have also been ignored. In fact, on Aug 4th (2023), The Irish Times ran an article describing the fears of officials from the Irish Department of Finance and Minister Michael McGrath, “that the departure of cement giant CRH from the Irish market ‘could harm Ireland’s attractiveness’ for international investors in shares, leading to a loss of trading revenues and commissions” (9). For ordinary homeowners suffering the devastating impacts of living in homes with defective blocks, this is an appalling indicator of the priorities of the Irish Government. In the very month following the launch of a DCB Grant Scheme (2022), which will trap innocent victims of industry negligence in decades of financial turmoil, the same department that has been instrumental in controlling the budgeting of the scheme, is lamenting the loss of a supplier identifed by many as a source of the problem.

The influence of this large conglomerate can also be seen at local level. In Autumn (2020) when the issue of defective blocks in Clare first appeared in the local media, for example, we see SLR Consulting, a company that “acts as planning and environmental advisors for Roadstone Ltd”, writing to Clare County Council on November 16th (2020), to remind them of “the importance of the extractive industries to the wider economy and the need to protect operations of working quarries and proven aggregate resources”, whichh is also “firmly established in national and regional planning policy”(appendix 6). Quoting details of Project Ireland 2040, SLR reminds Clare County Council and several other Local Authorities, who received similar letters, of the role, influence and power of this company within the Irish economy. This influence extends to the funding, or non-funding of research into the issue of defective concrete products. It is notable that of the €200,00 allocated by Minister Darragh O’Brien for research into pyrite/mica in construction materials in Jan (2021), only €50,000 of this was ever awarded.

GSI (Geological Survey Ireland) who had responsibility for the evaluation and allocation of this funding selected only one project from the many applications

submitted. This was given to SLR Consulting Ltd (appendix 7&8). Several FOI requests, asking for details of the selection process were denied by both GSI and government departments in (2021). The lack of transparency in the allocation of state funding for independent research into this widening crisis, and the potential conflict of interest in having the industry investigate itself is highly problematic.

The fact that the DCB Grant Scheme (2022), is to be funded by the Irish taxpayer is also an indicator of how unwilling and ineffectual the Irish Government appears to be, in pursing suppliers who should be held liable for this crisis. In September (2022), the introduction of a blanket concrete levy also added insult to injury (10). It will do little but further penalise not only the victims of this scandal, but ordinary hard-pressed citizens and small scale providers within the market during a time of already escalating building costs, and a national housing crisis. This levy will not impact the profit margins or the value of stocks & shares of corporate giants such as CRH, but reward them.

The fact that no investigation has been carried out by government into the source and suppliers of these defective blocks is telling. As is the sustained spotlight which has been doggedly maintained on one mineral, mica and one smaller-scale supplier in Donegal. For as long as the narrative that this is a regionalised ‘mica problem in Donegal’ is maintained, whether on the Dáil floor, or in the national media, the longer questions about suppliers in all the other impacted counties can remain unanswered.

The PR campaign of the Irish Government surrounding the DCB Scheme (2020-22), has also been highly unjust to thousands of ordinary impacted homeowners. Statements on the floor of the Dáil and in the media, ave consistently pitted those impacted against those who are not, implying the victims in this situation were deliberately placing an onerous burden on the ordinary taxpayers of the state.

This smokescreen of state stagecraft, allowed the Irish Government to sidestep questions as to why the DCB Grant Scheme is taxpayer funded at all?

Why has the Irish Government placed the burden of its own negligence, its non-regulation of the building sector and the corporate giants within it, back upon the very victims of this scandal, who are also equally hard-working taxpayers? Why are they not following through with an inquiry into what exactly has happened here? The very least that the citizens of Ireland and the European Union can expect of its elected government, is protection of the home, the primary asset, the heart of family, community and society, from the profit mongering of vested interests who have for decades evaded prosecution, where they should

have been regulated and pursued for malpractice.

Breach of Article 17.1 Everyone has the right to own, use, dispose of and bequeath his or her lawfully acquired possessions.

No one may be deprived of his or her possessions.

This non-regulation and corruption at the core of the Irish governments relationship with big industry influence, has resulted in the dispossession of thousands of ordinary citizens of their primary financial asset, their home. The DCB Grant Scheme (2022) will not restore these properties, as claimed by government, to remortgage ability. The refusal of the Irish Government to include a 40-year state backedd guarantee for (Option 1) demolition within this DCB Grant Scheme, is also a clear indication that the retention of potentially faulty, untested foundations, may very likely lead to further degeneration of the property in time. Property bequeathed with a guarantee of only forty years, for (Options 2-5) partial remediation, is in fact the removal of an asset for the next generation.

The Irish State is thereby writing into law, a breach of Article 17.1, when the state-backed, 40-yearguarantee within the DCB Scheme (2022) excludes (Option 1) demolitions, and is also time limited for homes remediated, under (Options 2-5).

Breach of Article 3 Right to the integrity of the person.

Everyone has the right to respect for his or her physical and mental integrity.

Access to adequate, safe, and affordable housing is a recognised pillar for sustaining all aspects of the social fabric of Irelands rural communities within the ‘National Development Plan (2021-30)’ (chpt. 8), (11) and listed as priority (11.1) with the ‘UN Sustainable Development Goals for 2030’, (12). The relationship between security of housing and mental health is widely accepted. ‘The impact of housing problems on mental health’ research report (2017, p.4) from Shelter UK for example, notes that of 3,509 adults interviewed, 21% experienced a mental health problem due to housing worries, with long-term stress, anxiety and depression ranking highest in impacts among respondents (13). The Irish ‘Framework for Improved Health and Wellbeing’ (2013-35, p.13) acknowledges that mental health will be a major influence on society and the economy of most developed nations by 2030, causing “significant costs related to loss of productivity, premature death, disability, and additional costs to the social, educational and justice systems” (14).

Section 6 of the ‘Ireland 2040’ plan, which focusses on People Home and Communities, emphasises quality of life, including impacts to material living conditions, economic and physical safety, health, overall life satis-

faction, governance and basic rights (15). All of these reference points of policy and planning are relevant when considering the plight of those living in homes impacted by defective concrete blocks. However, these human impacts are entirely absent in all stages of the Irish Governmetal response to this crisis to date. The sustained focus on arduous regimes of technical assessment and punitive financial non-solutions is further compounding the damage inflicted, especially as it pertains to the physical and mental health of the victims of this crisis. The Irish Government has failed at every stage of its response, which now spans over a decade, to provide effective essential supports to address the complex problems faced by ordinary people living through this crisis. This includes; • Failure to provide appropriate, timely and well managed resources to meet the complex needs of vulnerable individuals now experiencing both physiological and psychological consequences. Real impacts on physical and mental health have already presented amongst homeowners, ranging from heart attack, to stroke, depression, mental breakdown, and suicide. It has caused the breakdown of relationships, marriages, and disrupted all aspects of regular family life. It has devastated communities and adversely eroded the normal childhood of a generation.

• Failure to protect citizens from an indifferent banking industry, who are refusing to acknowledge the fact that thousands of properties underpinning their mortgage loans are now worthless. Yet homeowners are legally bound to maintain repayments on non-assets, even holes in the ground following the demolition of their homes. Allowing the insurance industry to also walk away from obligations to honour policies, or retroactively add new disqualifying clauses to contracts is also prevalent.

• Failure to protect homeowners from industry parties, who now seek to further exploit the misfortune of those impacted, by inflating costs for the excessive reports, certificates, remediation plans, and materials required to meet the regulations of a prohibitively complex and inaccessible grant scheme.

• Failure to consider accessibility of this scheme for vulnerable demographics such as the elderly, physically impaired, or already economically disadvantaged.

• Failure to provide clear project management for a multi-billion euro scheme, including transparent outlines of how the Housing Agency will prioritise funding allocations, annual projections on the quantity of homes to be remediated, and a long-term timeline of when all impacted may hope to achieve the restoration of their home.

In all of this, the right to the integrity of the person, including physical and mental integrity has been grossly disregarded. The expectation of fair, just, equal and timely redress for the huge wrong that has been done to the ordinary homeowners and citizens of Ireland in this scandal falls far short of what should be protected by a national government and the European Charter on Fundamental Rights.

References 1. EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.

2. ‘Remediation of Dwellings Damaged by the Use of Defective Concrete Blocks Bill 2022: Discussion’ House of the Oireachtas, Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and heritage debate, 02.02.2024.

3. Cleary, M (2022), ‘Defective Blocks in County Clare’, Losing Your Home, The Impact of Defective Blocks in Ireland Conference, TUS (May 2022).

4. McGarry, F. ‘Council Informed of Pyrite in Clare in 2018’, The Clare Champion, 04.09.2021.

5. Mc Mahon, P. ‘It’s there in black & white’ says Deputy Carey in response to Cllrr Murphy’s claims of ‘untrue’ pyrite article, Clare Echo, 17.09.2021.

6. ‘Statute of Limitations (Amendment) (Home Remediation-Pyrite) Bill 2012: Second Stage’, House of the Oireachttas, Seanad Éireann debate, 05.12.2012.

7. Ó Broin, E (2021), ‘Defects, Living with The Legacy of The Celtic Tiger Era’, Merrion Press (p.93).

8. Regulation of Providers of Building Works and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2022.

9. Beesley, A. ‘Officials fear for future of Ireland’s stock exchange after US listings by two big firms, The Irish Times, 04.08.2023.

10. Defective Concrete Blocks Levy. https:// www.revenue.ie/en/tax-professionals/tdm/income-tax-capital-gains-tax-corporation-tax/part18e/18E-00-01.pdf 11. Government of Ireland, National Development Plan 2021-2030.

13. ‘The Impact of housing problems on mental health’ (2017), Shelter UK. 14. Government of Ireland, Healthy Ireland Framework 2019-2025.

15. Government of Ireland, Project Ireland 2040, National Planning Framework.

Shortfalls and Impacts

In Jan 2024 core testing of Clare properties supervised by a Housing Agency appointed engineering company begins.

Prolonged delays in access to the DCB Scheme in Clare, along with impacts to physical and mental health are concerns I raise, during the third meeting of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on the DCB Scheme in Feb 2024.

Conflict of interest concerns, where large industry supplier representation exists in the composition of the NSAI panel, currently reviewing the IS:465 standard, are also raised both here and at the DCB Implementation Steering Committee in Spring 2024.

By late Spring, early Summer the first grant decisions are given in Clare.

CPAG organises member meetings and workshops in Ennis and Shannon.

By May 2024, there have been 92 applications submitted.

Of these, 86 have been validated by the LA and referred to the Housing Agency.

73 have met the Damage Threshold Determination.

11 have received a Remedial Option and grant decision, with funding of €3,354,364 allocated.

However, for all who have received a decision, the reality of the shortfall between the grant offer and the true cost of rebuilding their home is now becoming apparent.

The grant is not 100% Redress.

It’s doesn’t even reach the threshold of the older DCB Grant Scheme, which offered 90% of the cost to remediate the home.

For all there will be a shortfall of tens of thousands of euros.

Smaller homes are particularly impacted, as the costs of demolition and professional fees leave disproportionately less funds to rebuild.

Many homeowners in Clare are now experiencing the anticipated difficulties raised by the Action Groups of Clare, Mayo and Donegal, but ignored by government.

Securing an engineer or building contractor willing to take on, or sign off on remedial options 2-5, which involve only partial removal of defective blockwork is difficult.

As of Sept 2024, no home in Clare is even close to being restored.

TIME LIVING WITH IMPACT: 4 years

SPRING/SUMMER 2024

Campaigners from Clare, Mayo and Donegal participating in the Oireachtas Joint Committee meeting on DCB Scheme (Feb 2024). (Right) Extract from Dr. Martina Cleary’s statement.

Bríd Devanney

Kilkischen Interview with Dr. Martina Cleary (Jan 2024) This home means everything to me. It’s where I reared my family. I built it up and it’s where I love to be.

My husband died in 1987, and we had just the plans drawn up of what we were going to do. I had to continue on myself. We didn’t have any bathroom. We had three small bedrooms and a kitchen-dining room combined. I had to build on, especially for the bathroom. So, I built this extension. It was a lot of work. Coming home and seeing windows pulled out. There was a lot going on at the time, but it probably kept me going as well. I had four young children, eleven, ten, seven and eleven months. That wasn’t easy, but I did it, for them really.

I’ve put this home together, everything that’s here, kept it going. It wasn’t easy. There was lots I could do myself, and then there was lots I couldn’t. I would had to hire someone to come in and do it for me, but what I could do myself I did.

How did you feel when you discovered this problem?

I didn’t realise what it was at the time. I’d never heard of pyrite, mica or anything like that. I was reading an article in The Clare Champion one evening and I saw your name in it. You were talking about pyrite and cracking and I thought, this must be what I have. I thought it was just cracking on the surface of the extension, but never did I think it would be defective blocks.

I got an engineer out and he said yes, its category four. I felt gutted. When he said it would have to be knocked, I said no. I’m after putting this all together and didn’t want it knocked. But maybe that’s what I will have to do.

Bríd Devanney at the gable of her home Kilmurry (Jan 2024)

At this point in your life, what is this like?

Well, I’m here on my own now. I still need my kitchen, my bedroom, my bathroom. I hate the thoughts of when it does start. Even now, after they have done the core testing, every time I drive in, I can see all the holes, the cracks.

You try and block it out, but it’s impossible. It’s impossible to block it out. It faces me every day I wake up.

Have you noticed any changes in your relationship to your home?

Yes, I’ve no interest in it as such. I’m not bothered about painting it. I keep the inside as best I can, but the outside means nothing to me anymore. It’s disgusting for anybody else to see it. People driving by wondering, what’s wrong with her house? But what can I do?

I’m kind of worried about my bedroom, because I have a lot of black mold in it. There are cracks going across my window, so rain or water is getting in there, causing that.

It’s where I sleep every night.

How often do you think about defective blocks?

Oh every day of my life, every day. I drive in there every evening. It’s constant, it’s upsetting to see it as well. I just wish we could have it done. Get it over and done with.

How do you feel about the supplier of the blocks?

Oh, very cross. They are the culprits really. They sold those blocks without checking them. So, they are one hundred percent at fault. We go and buy our blocks and we assume they are all perfect blocks for building. Concrete homes are better built homes? I don’t think so anymore. I’ve lost my faith in them really.

Corner of Devanney home Kilkischen (Jan 2024)

Ted Harrington

Feakle Interview with Dr. Martina Cleary (Feb 2024) Home means family. It means Gráinne and I working together in good jobs, lucky to buy this site here and lucky to be able to build a house, a lovely house.

Rearing the children and day to day visitors coming.

My own family very often coming down here to Feakle, and Gráinnes’ family always welcoming and supported here. We’re here almost forty years now and the family have grown up here. They’ve gone their own ways, but they all know this is their home as well.

It’s been the place where our dreams…you know all the work we’ve done, it’s all tied up in the house here.

Home for me is I suppose family and the community in Feakle as well. You identify first with the neighbours around here and then the wider community. In Feakle we’re quite a close community and we’ve been very involved, both of us and the children in their time, were very involved in the community before they left as well. It is our heart really.

I think there’s a great pride in having a home. Nowadays it’s something that’s become more obvious, because so many people struggle to have a home, but for us we did work hard. At the time, when we started building, for the first five years interest rates were at eighteen and a half percent. Yes, eighteen and a half percent for a few years in the late 80’s, into the early 90’s. But you got over the hump of that. I suppose it’s the place you retreat to, and you leave from to go into the wider world. It’s a safe place you come home to, hopefully for most families it’s a safe place to come home to. Everything emanates from the home. The children going off to school, they come back to the home, study at home. When we were both at work, we’d be back here in the evening time. I suppose a home in Ireland is your castle, it’s your safe place.

You’ve great pride in what you’ve achieved if you’ve a home, and looking after it, carrying out whatever modifications, improvements, maintaining it. All those things are very important. We’re very proud of the home we have. We built it, we designed it. Well, a contractor built it with blocks, which we won’t talk about.

We have maintained it and added to it and minded it, even down to the simple things like carrying out improvements as we progressed through the years. We painted the kitchen, we painted all the presses here in the kitchen. We painted the outside of the house. We fixed the slates on the roof when they became dislodged. Then when we discovered that we had problems with cracks, we engaged an IS:465 engineer to come out and do an assessment. He advised us what to do and we’ve been diligent in the last four years

in doing that. He called it “the three M’s, maintain, mitigate and monitor.” We’ve been doing that vigilantly since. To try and preserve what we have, for as long as we can, before we have to face maybe the inevitable down the road.

It was a huge blow to us. Initially you feel sick in your stomach that you’ve got a problem. Then we learned more about what pyrite meant for a house. The slow disintegration and we were very angry. We were angry that somebody had given us blocks or concrete that were faulty. We were angry with the government who didn’t monitor the quality of the blocks being provided by the various quarries. Then we came to a sort of acceptance really that we have pyrite. So, we’ve just come to an acceptance that down the road we will probably have to face some remedial work for the house. In the short term we’ll do our damnedest to keep the house as it is and prevent the water ingress. So, it’s really an acceptance by us at this stage that we have it. We don’t allow ourselves to be too worried about it, because it does affect you emotionally. It does affect you psychologically. The fact that you have a problem house. We try our best not to get upset about it on a day-to-day basis.

Our house is on the roadside. We spoke openly about it and have no problem with people knowing about it to be honest. There are a few houses here that were built in 1986-87, that have similar cracks in them. So, it’s a shared burden in a sense. We’re not alone. In the wider area you know, working with the Clare Pyrite Action Group, we realised that there are many many houses effected. Even recently the other day, a man came up to me. He arrived here at the house and said, “I think we have pyrite and because you have it, maybe you could tell us about your story and see if it coincides with our story”. It was sort of confirmation for him that he had pyrite too. The way he was describing it. It was exactly the same as our story. He built his house the same time, in 1986. Now he’s living only a few miles from here. He and his family are coming to realise now, that we’ve got a serious problem here. But we’ve no problem about people knowing about it. We talk about it openly and people ask all the time, what stage are we at?

Ted and Gráinne Harrington in their kitchen in Feakle (Feb 2024)

We were both very upset. It’s always a case of why me? The house down the road that was built roughly a year before, or a year after us, isn’t effected whatsoever. So, there was a certain amount of, you know, it was unfair it should happen to us. You come to accept that very quickly. Ok, you can either get bogged down with the worries, or you can just accept it. It was during Covid. We had a long wait during Covid, waiting for the engineer to come out. He came out and then he never gave us the report. It was six months, purely because he’d forgotten about it, to send us the report. We were sort of hanging in midair for a long time. But we knew in our heart and souls when he talked to us that day. He was pointing out certain things that were sort of endemic for pyrite. It was only a case of getting the official report.

When we got that official report, it was upsetting to read it, in black and white.

I would say every second day I think about it, if not more often. Gráinne not as often. I mean, I walk around the house most days, and I note the extending lines of the spiderweb, definitely from week to week. It might be only a few inches but they’re just spidering along the wall farther and more extensive by the day. The front wall is a brick wall, so that doesn’t need checking as much. Though there are one or two cracks in the brick wall as well. Fortunately, we put on a sunroom to one of the gable ends, but the remaining part of that gable end is quite visibly full of cracks. We believe the western wall is even worse than the eastern wall. But at the moment, it’s very obvious when you look at the photographs or stand outside. The pattern, the spider web of cracks are very very obvious, even though I kept filling them in. Even driving up the road you’d see it, particularly when the sun is shining at a certain angle.

The first thing that greets you on arrival here is the gable end wall and you can see the repairs you’ve carried out, to try and prevent water ingress. Yet every day, you see little streams of wetness coming out from the ends of those spider lines. You’ll see them today.

Even though we’ve even put new protective coverings over the barges two years ago, to try to stop the water coming in. The barges are cracked - but to try and prevent water coming in through the slates, or being blown in by the wind into the cracks, and running down the inside wall. I suppose the most shocking thing was after one particular deluge, rainwater poured through to the inside. Shortly after that the window cracked, which was a result of certain movement in the wall. We got that repaired only two months ago and you can see already the grey lime rolling down the front of the replacement window.

The house was built on contract by a builder, who had only started into the building business. He did a good job on the house, but he gave up that business and went into the hardware business. I phoned him when we realised that we had pyrite. I asked him, “where did you get your blocks?” He said, “wherever I could lay my hands on them”. I said, “would you have gotten them from Bunratty?”, and he said, “yeah some, but I even went up as far as the midlands on occasion to get blocks. But I have no idea where you’re blocks came from.” That was the end of that conversation. I didn’t ask him again. He said, “what, that was forty years ago…I wouldn’t have a clue”.

How did I feel about the people who produced those blocks? Anger first of all, but also I was angry at the government that they didn’t monitor properly.

Anger at the quarry. You pay big money to a big company, and you expect a big return and obviously they let us down. The government also, in so far as they haven’t put in place proper monitoring of quarries. They have let me down as well. We paid our taxes. We paid our VAT on the blocks, and we have continued to pay property taxes through the years.

You’d expect a fairer deal from a good government, or a good provider of blocks.

Gable of the Harrington home Feakle (Feb 2024)

Dorothy Keane and Josephine Murphy Founders - Mayo Pyrite Action Group Interview with Dr. Martina Cleary Belmullet (Feb 2024) What does home mean?

DK: Feelings of contentment, happiness, love.

JM: Security I suppose. I always think of good food and a warm kitchen, and every time I come down here tea and a homemade scone. It’s just a place that’s familiar.

Where is the heart of the home?

JM: When I hear that phrase, I think of two things.

My mother said, “home is always where your heart finds love,” and the other thing I think of is a poem

by Martín Ó Direáin ‘Faoiseamh a Gheobhadsa’, “peace I will find, a little while, among my own people, back at home”.

What does home in Ireland mean?

JM: Home in Ireland? We talked about this on the way down.

DK: I think a home in Ireland is different than any other place in the world.

JM: Because of our history of emigration. The west of Ireland is what we are really and truly talking about.

DK: Especially in the west, because I think they come home more often. They love to come home.

This is where their first home is, and they always love their first home where their family is.

JM: They go home because there’s love there.

There’s safety, there’s security.

What do you think home means in the west of Ireland?

DK: It’s special, so special.

JM: I would say the same Dorothy and it really is a true indication of that phrase, ‘Home is where the heart is’.

How does this home reflect who you are (before DCB?) DK: It reflected me very happy, content, a threesome in my home. Truly happy. I enjoyed every minute of it.

JM: The family unit.

DK: My husband Tom, myself and Tommy my son, who’s here today, who is demolishing the house.

How has this changed due to DCB? JM: It’s broken the family unit.

DK: It’s gone and that was the cause of it, one hundred percent.

JM: There’s a very good photograph from The Western People, in 2014, of Tom standing at that gable when pyrite first became an issue.

People didn’t know what it was.

DK: That was back in 2014.

JM: So, ten years ago and we’re not one bit further on. Except the house is being demolished.

DK: And he’s not here anymore.

JM: And he’s not going to be here.

DK: So that’s one less. And yes, it’s due to the blocks, because when he was here, well, he was very intelligent. He knew a lot about building and concrete and all that. When he saw it, he realised what it was. He worried every single day and I think that’s why he is where he is today. Looking at it every single day.

JM: You know, just falling apart.

In December of 2013, I realized there was something wrong with the blocks here in Erris, particularly on the peninsula here. So, Michael Healy our neighbor and our shopkeeper, who has since passed away God rest him. He told me he had the same issue. He said Tom and Dorothy have it as well. So, the very next day Tom came to me. We compared notes and we started the campaign. That was December 2013 and in January 2014 we had our first meeting. There were about ten people. We decided we’d go to see Michael Ring. He was the Minister at the time. From there on Tom was very active in the campaign, protested with us, came to the meetings with us, sought help. That was 2014, wasn’t it? He was very very vocal, very cross, very angry DK: Yes. JM: It was something that should never have happened.

Where is Tom now?

JM: Tom is in a nursing home.

DK: He has vascular dementia.

JM: He wouldn’t know us now.

Dorothy looked after him for two years here.

(Right) Josephine Murphy and Dorothea Keane

What was it like in the early days, finding out about defective blocks up here in Mayo?

JM: Shock, horror, rage, anger, how to deal with this? It should never have happened in the first place.

DK: Getting to know how many people had it. We formed a bigger group then.

JM: All our local representatives and people in politics, whatever they were, ministers or whatever.

Fianna Fáil weren’t in power at the time when we started the campaign, but they haunted me, coming back every day looking at how bad it was. But today Michael Ring won’t even answer the phone or an email.

How many people are you aware of that have it in Mayo?

JM: In Mayo, we don’t know. We set up Mayo Pyrite Group. Nobody would take it on, so I was asked. A lot of people didn’t understand this. I asked Dorothy and she said she would, so we worked together for ages. I was scripting and she’d do the emailing. I’m not IT savvy at all.

DK: And we’ve been together ever since.

JM: It’s twelve years now. The people who came to meetings then, came from Ballina, Crossmalina, Kilalla, Westport, Ballycastle. From all over the place and of course the locality here of Erris, for help. And of course we’ve made great friends. We’ve stuck together and people who have had their house remediated, we’re now getting invitations.

There are over 350 houses who have applied in Mayo?

JM: Yes, but very few of them have actually been finished completely. Is it thirteen?

DK: Yes, thirteen.

JM: Or sixteen. Something like that.

In ten years?

DK: But it hasn’t actually gone on in ten years.

JM: No because we didn’t get the grant until 2020.

A week before the general election!

DK: It’s four years now since the ninety-ten scheme, then the other one came out last year.

JM: In 2022, on paper. But that wouldn’t have happened if Mayo got a scheme for pyrite and one for mica in Donegal. But we got an engineer, we got to test our blocks, we got the science. The reports were coming back through your engineer, showing pyrite and other deleterious materials,and that is what lead to the new enhanced scheme. But it was all done

with lies and the enhancements weren’t fit at all.

The ninety-ten became four hundred and twenty thousand, instead of two hundred and fifty. But you weren’t told that you’d only get four hundred and twenty thousand if you got demolition, and if you had the square meters. We weren’t told either that we’d lose our engineer. We weren’t told either that a BCA, just a visual, something like that crack there on the wall would be needed to get you into the scheme.

How do you feel about the suppliers who caused this?

DK: Now at the moment I don’t think of them at all.

At the start I was raging. Completely mad. That was my first thought. I know this is very bad, but worse things have happened to me personally, so I’ve just decided to take it in my stride, and that’s what I’m going to do.

JM: I’d be so angry. Not so much about the people that supplied, but I feel angry, frustrated, enraged really at what the government are subjecting us to.

And it happened because they failed to regulate the concrete business. And it’s still not being regulated.

Our supplier. They have kind of reinvented themselves. They’ve been granted a license to take back all that’s going to come when this house is demolished. It goes back to them. They’ve a license, so they’re getting paid for that. We paid them for the blocks. We now have to pay them again to take them away. They have reinvented themselves and gone into tarmacadam. Their addvertisement on the local radio station really drives people mad. Where a neighbor is complementing another on their lovely tarmacadam. The quarry tells us “to do it right the first time”.

DK: And it’s at Christmas, which makes it ten times worse.

JM: That really is getting inside people’s heads. We told that to the Minister when we met him. We were advised by the councillors not to because they were employing people. They were feeding seventeen families. And people around the locality where the suppliers are, they worked there.

DK: We had to move out of the house three weeks ago and my house is going to be demolished very shortly. My son and his partner are just taking out what is salvageable. This is their last day here, and they’ve been here now for four weeks. It’s just heartbreaking, heartbreaking. That’s all I can say, just heartbreaking looking at this, which was once a beautiful home. Now it’s nothing. It’s nothing.

(Above and over) Disintegrating blocks in the wall of the Keane family home Belmullet (Feb 2024)

Josephine Murphy at the gable wall of her property in Belmullet (Feb 2024)

Cathal Crowe TD

Interview with Dr. Martina Cleary (Ennis - Feb 2024)

What does home mean in the west of Ireland?

The heart of the home is usually the kitchen, in my mind. I know that’s maybe a very traditional view, but I think the kitchen table, whether it’s colouring books, or cereal spilling over it, or having the Christmas dinner. In my house we don’t always have dinner at the kitchen table. We lapse on it, we sometimes have it on a bowl on our laps in front of the TV, as lots of families do. I think the kitchen is still really the hub of nice conversation and homework being done. For me it’s the centre of the home.

I think there was a time when the west of Ireland was a more traditional part of the country, but nowadays society is quite homogenous around Ireland. At least culturally, we seem to have a similar interpretation of what home is around the country. The idea of the west of Ireland homestead seems to have gone for many. I would still encounter, when I go out on the road, parts of the west and north of the county would still have that traditional homescape. Mostly on farm holdings, on small holdings. I follow a social media account, ‘Vanishing Ireland’ and I still see little glimpses of that as I go into homes. I’ve been in homes where you’d have the sacred heart, the pope and JFK. Those homes still exist. There’s not many of them. They’re beautiful, they’re precious and the person in that home is as precious as the home itself.

And sadly, they’re dying, they’re dying away. Now we have even government schemes that are promoting an unravelling of that. The ‘Croí Cónaithe’ is wonderful in the sense it catches these homes in the west of Ireland that are in pretty poor repair, or dereliction and it transforms them into modern homes.

It’s a good way of thinking and politically I love the idea. People love the idea, but the traditionalist in me regrets the fact that when you re-render a house and when you pull it out and re-roof it, the story of the house goes with it in that moment. A new family moves in, it’s not all doom and gloom. It’s someone else’s home. But certainly, that west of Ireland traditional home that we’re used to on postcards, it’s very much a dying out feature of the landscape.

What does home mean in Ireland?

How does your home reflect who you are?

I think I’ve a very strong view on this. I’m very interested in history. I think a lot of this traces back to the fact that for eight centuries we didn’t own our country. We hadn’t independence. There are still photos in the Irish photographic archive up to 1905, 1915 which show people in mud hut hovels, so the idea of having a home that’s strong, structurally safe, warm and comfortable is something new, and it’s something Irish people aspire to. I lived for a year in Brussels and very few people there owned their homes. It’s apartment rentals and people expect to start renting, and rent for the rest of their lives. Not so in Ireland. Home ownership is hugely important in Ireland, and we have a housing crisis of course. We’re making inroads but we’re not getting fully on top of it. But I think that too is intertwined with home ownership. We do talk about social housing but in Ireland people desire to own homes and they want their children coming after them to own homes as well.

I find life for me is bedlam, so honestly my favourite thing…and if you asked me my favourite thing over the years it would have changed since I was younger, but certainly it’s family, the wife and kids. So, I love whether it’s having a day off out in the garden or kicking ball with the kids, or whether it’s coming home from a crazy bonkers day and just being able to sit down, snooze in the armchair, watch a cartoon with my kids. That’s what I value about my home environment. And actually, interestingly, people think that the homes of politicians are bombarded with people knocking on the door. My neighbours are excellent. I’m always available to them, they have my mobile. I meet them every couple of days, but generally once I go into my home at night-time, I’m generally left alone. It’s a sanctuary for the family, that’s the thing I love above all. It’s not the best home in Ireland, it’s not the worst. It’s a three-bed semi. It’s perfect for my family needs and it’s what we really love.

What does home mean?

I think home is ideally considered our own. There are many instances where people are renting but it’s a place where family can live, where one can feel safe. Working life is tough for many people. Life is stressful for many people, so it’s a place I think to chill out, to be able to relax and feel safe and warm.

I think that home has even more connotations for children. I remember when I was teaching, children used to love drawing houses. Children love drawing dogs and houses. They would even imagine what their future house would be like. I think home and house go together and yet they’re not the same thing. Home usually denotes family I believe as well.

Where do you think the heart of the home is, what does it mean?

How do you feel about the defective concrete block issue?

Straight up, I’ve a high awareness of it now. I didn’t always know about defective concrete blocks. I don’t think the country knew about defective concrete blocks, probably until about five years ago. I’d heard of pyrite when I was a teacher, before becoming a TD and I remember teaching my class about the goldrush in the wild west in America. Pyrite was known as fool’s gold. If there’s little pyrite fragments down in the stream bed they glint in the water, they glint in the sunlight. They’re actually a beautiful thing and I’d heard of this pyrite substance in history books over the years. I remember when teaching my class, buying a little lump of pyrite in a rock shop up by the Cliffs of Moher in Liscannor. I remember bringing it in one time and showing it in class. It was a couple of years later this same pyrite was featuring in reports, where it was having a negative effect on the structure of houses. I think initially it was a Donegal issue and was being highlighted there. But thanks to the Clare Pyrite Action Group, I became aware that it was in Clare. First of all, I think we all wrongly believed it to be a minor problem maybe to begin with, and then to discover it was widespread. Very quickly us as politicians and those who are engineers and those who work for Clare County Council, and indeed homeowners who had cracks on the gable end. I think everyone had to tune in and say right, we have pyrite in our county. How prevalent is it? I suppose I wouldn’t consider myself an expert in any field, but I’ve certainly acquired a lot more knowledge on this. It’s devastating for homeowners because as I travel this county I pass places like Quin Abbey. Structures that have withstood storms, hurricanes, lightning strikes and everything in between.

Some buildings even burnt but they’re still standing tall and strong. It’s devastating to think that some houses even built in the last two decades are at risk of falling in due to deleterious materials being used in their construction. That is a woeful thought that there wasn’t enough regulation that allowed things to go that far, and it must be a devastating thought for the people who turn the key in that door and call that very house their home.

How do you think it happened?

I think someone must have known, that’s the first thing, because I knew about pyrite being fool’s gold, and I knew about it being in the historical context, a shiny stone. I didn’t know any more about it, but you can be damn sure that someone who works in the quarry environment, in the mixing environment, they know what makes good concrete. They know what makes bad concrete.

I don’t know the exact science of it. I just know when I buy a bag of cement, it’s six shovels and some sand and some water. But surely the people who were mixing these substances knew that a certain batch of concrete is good, a certain batch is bad, and they will know what materials go in. I’ve heard over the years quarry owners talk about sand. I thought sand was sand, but there’s Wexford sand, there’s rabbit sand.

There are all different types of sand and I’ve heard builders say, I will not put rabbit sand in my concrete.

I’ve heard others say, if you’re doing a sports pitch you have to get Wexford sand. So that’s knowledge I knew nothing about until I heard people speaking about it. So absolutely, someone in this industry had to have known that there are some ingredients that make good concrete, some ingredients that make bad concrete. And shame on them for selling something that was below par. It was a quick buck exercise, but it’s left a lot of people in a rut now, where literally the house could fall down around them.

That’s the worst form of skulduggery to actually lead someone down that garden path, believing that this material will build a strong home, when it will build anything but.

How do you think the impacted homeowners feel about it?

Yes, it’s devastating. It’s got to be devastating. I think it’s very injurious to their mental health. I’ve met with them as a collective group, but it’s really when I meet with them individually and some of them are neighbours. It’s across that cup of coffee at their kitchen table they’ll tell you that it’s not just bricks and mortar, and a cracking gable end. What it’s done to them.

They attribute a lot of their health problems, not to the chemical substance of pyrite, but to the stress it brought on. And I believe that anyone who has prolonged periods of stress in their lives are due to get sick and unwell. I think it brings a lot of that on.

I think the same can be true for these homeowners.

The other thing about home ownership is that people hope, that when their time in this world is over, there will be something they can pass on to those coming after them. I think that’s a massive concern to people who have pyrite in their homes in defective concrete blocks. The other thing is that a lot of the people who are homeowners, they seem to be more advanced in years in County Clare. I think that’s a big concern as well. If you’re younger, in your twenties or thirties, you’ve to go back into a bank, you’ve to get your head around loans and restructuring mortgages. Possibly rebuilding part, if not all your house.

But that’s a totally different concept if you’re in your sixties or seventies. Where will you get a loan? How can you begin all this again? And what are you going to be passing on to those who come after you? I think that is another huge stressor for these homeowners.

How does what happened do you think, relate to the history of our country, or even the west of Ireland?

I think it’s down to very poor regulation. I think as a country we’ve become very regulated in recent years.

There seems to be a regulator for all industries and bodies at the moment. But there was a time when this simply wasn’t the case. Even down to health and safety in the workplace. It just wasn’t a feature. Earlier this summer the Taoiseach was down in Ardnacrusha and we were given a tour of the facility. To hear how many people died there. There was nothing about it. They just got a funeral and that was it. Nowadays there’s far more scrutiny. But for decades – we are one of Europe’s youngest countries, and for decades I think the focus was on building a statehood. Ensuring that Irish people could return home. They left here for decades and centuries and it’s only in recent years that I think we’ve gotten onto regulation. The Celtic Tiger years as well. Who wasn’t enjoying it? I think the whole country. I was a teenager in those times, but I remember looking at college courses. You couldn’t even finish your college course. Someone would be offering you employment. The whole country was just booming and opportunities were immense for everyone. But as the boom was happening the eye was being taken off financial regulation, building regulation, building control. Around this time in 2004 I became a county councillor, and defective concrete blocks weren’t yet a feature, but unfinished housing estates became a big feature. It became obvious we had a good structure to go and build things, and get projects off the ground, but we had less of a regulatory structure in terms of follow up and the scrutiny that’s so important afterwards.

What do you think about the Defective Concrete Blocks Scheme?

I think it’s a very difficult scheme. From the get-go I had a belief politically that we had to do it. We had to bring in redress for people. It wasn’t their fault, that should be the first thing, I think. Their banners that they held outside Leinster House said that. “It’s not our fault – We demand redress”. So I think the first culprit is the manufacturer and supplier of the blocks.

But I think there’s also a role here for the state because the state sets the regulatory framework. The

other thought I had politically, it’s going to be nigh on impossible to appease and please everyone with what the scheme will bring in, because I attended meetings here in Clare and as you leave the room someone will say, “that’s great there’s finally hope in sight”. Someone else will say “that does absolutely nothing for me”. So, the scheme I think, for better or worse, there’s a huge amount of money going into it.

I think a lot more will be required. I think we haven’t fully grasped yet how prevalent pyrite and defective concrete blocks are, and mica. I think we’re going to have a multi-annual scheme that will probably take a decade or more to fully roll out redress. It will happen in more counties than we currently know about as well. I think my worry now is probably down to individual cases. Again, to go back to the point I earlier made, we have a lot of elderly people who feel this scheme does very little for them. The one thing, the positive and I don’t know does it appease all homeowners, but this gets reviewed every February. It gets benchmarked against where inflations at and building construction prices. But I think that annual February review should have a little bit more. It should look at the functionality of the scheme, because already more is coming to light about foundations.

My own father told me a story around the time that pyrite, mica, defective blocks were becoming a national story. He was one of that generation that built his own home in the late 1970’s and he remembers a pickup truck bringing a load of blocks into the house.

He was quite handy now. I wouldn’t be as handy as him. He bought a load of blocks that were dropped off in the driveway. Several of them just crumbled there and then and he said to your man, “we’re not taking them, we’re sending them back”. At the time he hadn’t a clue what pyrite was. Defective block just wasn’t a term being used, but most definitely, and I know where those blocks came from, most definitely they were substandard. But many who accepted blocks from that company and others, put them into their house, believed that this would give them a strong, substantial house that would stand for centuries, and it won’t. And I believe we need to go after them.

Why do you think government is not pursuing the suppliers, particularly in this area?

Government are pursuing suppliers and yet where that’s at, at the moment isn’t fully clear. What I’ve been briefed on as a government backbencher is that in approximately 2022 I think, a file was brought to the Attorney General, and that his office was to lead

out a case on behalf of the state against defective concrete block suppliers. At the time a lot of us were saying that needs to happen parallel to redress, because redress has to happen. I believe in it. There was an unfortunate phrase used by a senior politician, that the taxpayers were going to pay for it. Of course they will, but the homeowners are also taxpayers. I think redress has happened. The state should fund it and yet I think the states’ funding of it should only be on an interim basis, if that makes sense. Ultimately the person picking up the bill at the end of the day should be those who sold and manufactured this. So, we brought in a concrete levy. That hasn’t gone perfectly either because there are suppliers and building projects who are saying, neither did we do this.

So, I think we can only get justice when we bring the real culprits before the court system. I’m not going to name them on camera, but I have named them in the Dáil chamber, when I’ve had legal privilege to do so. They’re not just giants in Ireland, they’re giants in Europe. They can well afford this. They can well afford this on a multi-annual basis and that needs to be the end goal for government. The Minister at the time, I had frustrations on, but he made the point that redress has to happen now. The legal process will take years. If you fully align the two and run them off parallel, you’ll make sure that redress happens a lot slower than it is at the moment. Some will say redress isn’t happening quickly enough anyway, but if you fully married it to a legal process, I think we could be years down the road. And that’s not what homeowners…they certainly don’t have that luxury; they don’t want that.

How would you describe this situation to people who know nothing about it, e.g. abroad?

I think in the main, we have to talk about the majority of Irish homes, have been well built. They’re standing up well. I mean we do get the weather and the elements here on this island that other nations wouldn’t.

However, pyrite, mica, defective concrete block homes are far more prevalent that we expected them to be. There’s also many public buildings, which isn’t a bad thing. I think that has sharpened the focus of a number of government departments as well. But really if we are to sum this up, we have people who have either bought homes or built homes. Very few people are self-building these homes. These are homes they paid someone for. Or they paid a supplier and what was brought into the yard on a particular morning and loaded off a truck, was of very poor quality and ultimately as the elements hit that material, or as the house moved through the decades, that material gave way and it led to crumbling. I think the state has a role to play in that because regulation was non-existent. I wouldn’t say it was slack it was non-existent.

Pillar of concrete blocks built in the 1950’, standing in the garden of a homeowner, Fanore (Oct 2020)

Eoin O’Broin TD

Interview with Dr. Martina Cleary (Dublin - Feb 2024) What is the meaning of home?

So, for me home, it’s more than just a building. It’s where you spend time with your family with your friends. It’s where you’re safe, where you’re secure.

It’s where I read books, cook dinners. So, it’s a physical structure. It’s an emotional place. It’s a community place, and for me I suppose, the single most important thing about it is, it has to be secure. It has to be safe. It has to be the place where you are most at ease, and I think if your house or apartment or flat has all of that, that’s really what makes it a home rather than just a building.

What comes to mind when you hear ‘home is where the heart is’?

It’s that idea, that it’s an emotional space. That it’s a family space. That it’s a place of love or of comfort or ease. But it’s as much about the people, the beating heart of the property. Also, Lyn and I have two lovely dogs, two rescues. Home is where their hearts are. Home is where they feel safe and comfortable and at ease. So it’s that sense of you know, it’s about the people. It’s about the living things. It’s about the emotional bonds between people and that home is a particular place. It’s a particularly special place which isn’t replicated in work, or you know a hotel, or anything like that.

What does the heart of the home look like?

Well, I think for every home it’s different and that’s the whole point of it. In some senses I don’t think it’s something you can or need to describe. It’s whatever the folks who live in that home or visit that home feel it is. That’s why people’s homes are so different.

I mean, when you go into somebody’s home you can tell a lot about the person by the way it’s decorated, the way it’s used. What appears to be important or not important. So, in that sense, I think it’s up to each, I don’t want to say homeowner, because we’re not all homeowners. Many of us rent or are in other arrangements. But you know for all of us in our own homes, it really is what it is that we want it to be. So long as you have the ability to do that, the control, the means, the safety system, the security. It really is quite, and I don’t mean individual in terms of the person. Because it’s also collective depending on who lives in that home.

But it really is down to each group of people or individual, that are the occupants of that home at any point in time.

What do you think home means for people in Ireland?

In Ireland I think for most people it means something similar to what I’ve said. I mean I work with lots and lots of people who don’t have a home. They might have a flat. Or they might have you know a box bedroom in the mom and dad’s house. Or they might live in defective buildings of various kinds. So, they have a roof over their heads, but they don’t necessarily have a home. A lot of people are in emergency accommodation and again, they have a roof over their heads, but not necessarily a home. I think for most people it’s security, it’s safety. It’s the place where you feel most comfortable and in fact most of them, the conversations I have with people aren’t about what home is. It’s about why they need a home, where they don’t have one. I’m talking to people who live with enormous insecurity. Financial insecurity, physical insecurity, tenure insecurity and therefore most of the time people express home to me in the negative. As something they don’t have, and they desperately want and desperately need. I think that’s the problem for far too many people. Even those people that have a roof over their heads. They don’t necessarily have a home and that’s the real problem.

What does home mean in the west of Ireland today?

Again, I mean I don’t speak for folks in the west of Ireland, because I’m a city boy from the capital. But when I talk to folks it’s very similar. I was in Donegal recently in the homes of some folks with very advanced defective block. These are people who like most own their own homes. They worked hard. They saved and they got their mortgages. They paid their mortgages. They saved again to try and have the fittings and fixtures and the comforts for them and their children. You know they’re approaching retirement age, and they didn’t just want a home for themselves and their children. They wanted something to be able to pass on to their children. So, their children had a security, that they might not have had themselves as young adults.

The fact that all of that was threatened because of the defective nature of the home. It really undermined that sense of security. I represent lots of people who live in social housing, with terrible building defects in my own constituency. With damp, with mold, with water ingress, showing negative impacts on their family’s life, on their health and their well-being, on their emotional security. They never know if they’re going to transfer or not, so for me it really doesn’t matter where. Yes, there’s a category of people who think of housing as an asset class, as an investment vehicle.

But actually, most people who

either have their own home or who are desperate to get their own home, understand that it’s much more than a building or an investment. It’s something much more I think fundamental to human well-being and flourishing. I don’t think it matters if you’re in the north east, west or south of the country. I don’t think it matters if you’re a private homeowner, a private renter, a social housing tenant, or an aspiring social housing tenant. It has the same value across all of those groups of people in our society.

How do you feel about the defective concrete block issue?

For me all of the defects, so whether it was pyrite in Leinster or defective concrete block, and it’s not just block because it’s also in some cases in foundations and other materials, or the building defects. For me it’s not just a human tragedy, a human catastrophe in each family’s case, but given that it was entirely preventable. Given that along the way from the 70’s the 80’s the 90s, various people and building control sections, and local authorities, and the opposition, and the Oireachtas, or other people warned that something like this could happen. The powers that be ignored all those warnings and allowed it to happen. It makes it kind of a double scandal because it’s not just wrong, but it was a preventable wrong. Maybe there’s a third wrong here, because we’ve known about all these things for over a decade. We knew about Priory Hall in 2006, 2007 and 2008. In 2009 definitively, but it was only after Fiachra Dalys’ completely preventable suicide, that the government took action. We’ve known about defective block in Clare, in Mayo, in Donegal and elsewhere from 2008, 2009 and 2010. Yet here we are in 2024 and people are still struggling to get a basic level of redress and remediation.

So, it’s a repeated series of failures by the state and by industry. As if the first failure wasn’t enough, as if the second failure wasn’t enoug. We’re failing people yet again and unfortunately that’s the way successive Irish Governments have dealt with these types of things.

I know the Magdalene Laundries is a different issue, false adoptees are a different issue, but at the same time we don’t just have the first wrong, the first scandal. But then there’s the repeated denial of responsibility by the state, and the slowness to take action and then fix problems that ultimately the state bore a very significant responsibility for. So, it’s something that angers me. It’s something that frustrates me and I spend a lot of time in homes here in Dublin, where people have worked so hard to have that home. Then it’s all pulled from under them when they discover the defects that are there. You know it doesn’t matter how

many times you’ve sat in that kitchen, and you’ve listened to that. It cannot but anger you again that the state continues to fail people in such a manifest way.

That’s just the anger I feel. Very removed, I’m not the homeowner, I’m not the renter, I’m not the tenant. I can only begin to imagine the feeling, the frustration, the anger sometimes, the sense of hopelessness that they feel. And raised expectations that there’s going to be a scheme, promised in 2018, delivered in 2021, that failed. Raised expectations that there was going to be a revised scheme. Legislation in 2022, a new scheme opens in 2023 and yet here we are in 2024, and certainly the homeowners I’m talking to don’t believe that the scheme as it is, is going to provide them with the 100% Redress they’ve been promised.

So again, the first scandal, the second scandal, raised expectations, dashed hopes, raised expectations, dashed hopes again. It just is a litany of wrongs that at some point have to be righted.

What do you think about the DCB Grant Scheme?

Well first of all it’s not a question for me. Politicians shouldn’t be saying if this scheme is good or not, because the only people who have a right to judge this scheme are homeowners. I don’t live in a defective home. I’m not the person who has to go and get my engineers report and then talk to a building contractor and a material supplier. Or have to count up whether it’s five, or ten, or fifteen, or twenty, or forty, or sixty, or in some cases eighty thousand of a gap between the basic bill costs of the structure and the grant that I’m offered, and that’s before we talk about all of the other costs. So therefore the real question is, what is the view of those people who are trying to access this scheme?

When I talk to those people, they’re telling me this scheme does not work. They’re telling me this scheme does not resolve the problems of the original scheme and ultimately, I think the problem is in the design of the scheme itself. A grant scheme was never the right approach. A scheme that was fundamentally different from the Leinster Pyrite Scheme was always going to end up where we’ve ended up. So, I think rather than politicians answering that question. Whether they say it’s a good scheme or a bad scheme. We need to listen very carefully to the homeowners. We need to understand the problems with the scheme that’s there and we need to put in place a scheme that works. Most of the people I know who accessed the Leinster Pyrite Scheme, including one group of homeowners in my own constituency, while there were difficulties getting this scheme up and running and getting into it. That scheme functioned for people. It was an end-to-end

scheme. The works were done, and people were not out of pocket. Therefore, on the basis of what I’m hearing from homeowners, there really needs to be a fundamental change in this scheme, if it’s going to give people their homes back.

How do you think this happened in Ireland?

I think two things happened. I think first of all industry lobbied very very hard for light touch regulation and light touch standards. There is no doubt about that. All of the evidence shows that, and that’s both in terms of the failure to enforce existing building material standards, but also failure to enforce existing building control standards. Industry got their way. The government then refused to ensure that we have adequate building control, independent inspections, product surveillance. And then we had the Celtic Tiger boom. When you mix all of that failure to regulate with greed and avarice, you get the kinds of problems we have today. So, I think it is a failure of government. I think it is an example of industry capture of government. But also, then an abject failure of government to act in the public interest. To put in place the quality regulations and good quality inspection and enforcement of those regulations. The problem of course is that while some changes were made to the building control side of things in 2014 and 2015, unfortunately nothing has changed in terms of building products surveillance. It is entirely conceivable that similar things could be and indeed in some cases, albeit in a small number of cases we’re aware of, are happening today, despite the fact that we’re currently looking at a bill of anything upwards of €5 billion to deal with defective block and foundations and wider Celtic Tiger era building defects.

How do you think this relates to the history of our country?

I do think certainly with respect to building control and construction, government has always been reluctant to regulate. The history of the absence of building control is a long and a sorry one. If you go back and look at the records, whether it was the collapse of the Church St. tenements in 1913. Whether you look at the Fenian St. and Bolton St. tenements collapsing in the 1960s. Whether you look at Priory Hall and Fiachra Daly’s suicide in the Celtic Tiger era.

We seem to have this approach whereby we wait until there’s a crisis. We wait until there’s a catastrophe.

We wait until somebody’s life is lost and then government moves a bit, but they never move far enough, and the situation continues. Until something else happens. You know I talked to folks who are in or

close to retirement age. They have no ability to project manage the rebuild of their own home, let alone make up the ten, twenty, thirty, forty, sixty thousand euros. I talked to folks who are on disability allowance, because they’ve had workplace injuries since building and developing their own home. They have no capacity, financial, emotional, you know kind of intellectual, to deal with the stresses and strains that have been imposed on them.

It just seems to me that the state always waits until it’s too late and then moves a bit, but that’s still not enough, and the question has to be asked who has to die next before the state decides to move just a little bit further? I don’t think that’s over dramatizing it. I think our history shows that. I am absolutely convinced from talking to Stephanie Meehan at great length - the partner of Fiachra Daly, who took his own life because of the stress and strain of Priory Hall. If government had moved and done a very simple thing, met the families in Priory Hall when they first sought a meeting. If they then moved to try and resolve the issues in a fair and reasonable way, Fiachra Daly would be alive today. It was the intransigence of government to engage with homeowners and fix the problem, which in that instance government had very clear responsibility for, alongside the developer in question, Culport Properties and Tom McFeely. Fiachra would be alive, his children would still have a father, his partner would still have her partner. Therefore this isn’t just an issue of money, this isn’t just an issue of numbers. This is an issue of life and death and the longer we leave it without resolving it, the more people’s lives are at risk. And maybe not at risk of losing their lives, but the quality of their lives is so greatly diminished. That in and of itself is something that very few people talk about. It is hard to measure, but just shouldn’t be lost in the conversation about addressing this scandal.

Why do you think the government isn’t pursuing suppliers in this?

The straight answer is I don’t know. But there has always been a reluctance to go after them. First of all, at the very minimum they should be applying a levy and a levy that’s designed in such a way as not to impose costs on homeowners who are rebuilding their own homes. But to make sure there’s an industry contribution. The idea that the taxpayer should foot the full bill, whether it’s four or five or six billion, is not fair. The state has responsibility but not sole or exclusive responsibility. But also, if nobody is punished for this, people will do it again. For example, in my constituency there is a building that was bought and

refurbished into apartments after the 2015 regulations were put in place, in 2018, without a completion certificate, and here you have fourteen apartments, all without completion certificates. Many of them have had multiple tenants, meaning multiple breaches and the developer in that question has not been prosecuted. Despite very clear and public efforts by people like me to say, hang on a second, if we don’t make an example of the most egregious breach of building control amendment regulations in modern times, what signal does that send out to that section of the development community who are willing to break the rules? I meet with lots and lots of builders and developers, they are honest and they’re hard working.

They build a decent quality product, unfortunately too expensive, but that’s a separate issue. But if we don’t prosecute people who break the law, and it is an offence to allow a property to be occupied without a completion certificate. Then it basically says, go ahead break the rules we don’t care. Therefore, it’s not just that the state isn’t holding anybody to account for the Celtic Tiger era building defects, or for the defective blocks scandal. We have cases right now in some local authorities, of current breaches of building control regulation. Very very significant ones. With the exception of Dublin City Council, who I have to say have an outstanding building and control department. Other local authorities, mine included, are far too slow to prosecute. Why? Maybe they’re fearful of losing. Maybe they don’t have the resources that are required in terms of staff members to handle those cases. Maybe if they focus on one prosecution, they won’t be able to manage all of the other enforcement issues they have. I don’t know and ultimately this comes back to government. Government has to decide. Do we hold people to account or do we not? If you don’t pay your television license, despite all of the scandals in RTE, you will be hauled to the court and you will be prosecuted. Well, I’m sorry but the breaches of the building control amendment regulations at Larkfield House on Coldcut Road in Clondalkin, are so much greater than a TV license and nonpayment. Yet the developer has forty-eight tenants paying two thousand euros a month. Many of them subsidised by HAP and he is laughing literally in our faces all the way to the bank.

I’m afraid that tells me the government doesn’t take the enforcement of it’s own building regulations seriously even today. After all of the scandals of the Celtic Tiger era, and I think that’s a real problem.

The supplier in our region is a multi-billion-euro inter national supplier. What do you think about not taking that one on, that could fund the scheme?

Well first of all, I think they should be contributing to the scheme, and I see no reason why a levy should not

be imposed. Phil Hogan actually promised to intro duce a levy in advance of the Leinster Pyrite Scheme, either on a voluntary basis or through legislation. He was threatened with legal action, and it was actually the insurers at the time rather than the quarries, or the home builders, who made that threat. We have that letter under Freedom of Information, and he backed down. I think Phil Hogan should have stood his ground.

I think he should have fought in court. It would have been the right thing to do by homeowners. So, in the first instance for me the most urgent thing is to design a levy that makes those people who are responsible pay and contribute. But I also think we need to find a process to fully learn the lessons of how this happened. Who was responsible? What happened? Did anybody break the law? The problem in many cases is far too often they didn’t break the law. The law itself was badly designed. But if people did break the law, why are they not being prosecuted? And, if the law itself was badly designed and allowed people to behave in ways which you and I might call ethically improper, but which weren’t illegal, then the law needs to be changed and strengthened. The Oireachtas Housing Committee published a report in 2018, ‘Safe as Houses’, which set out a very strong agenda for the reform of building control. I am of the view that for far too long the law wasn’t strong enough and people were allowed to do things which were ethically improper, but not illegal. This government promised to look at those in its programme for government, but has done virtually nothing on that since 2020. So, for me there’s also a need for changing the law. But the priority now has to be fixing people’s homes and ensuring we have an adequate stream of finances from the exchequer and from industry to fix those homes.

As we’re doing that, we need to make sure the law and our building control, product surveillance systems are reformed to ensure this can never happen again. Also, I do think we need to have a look back to understand why this happened. Who let it happen and is there anything that could be done in terms of holding people to account during that period?

How would you describe the situation for people who know nothing about it, for example abroad or in Europe?

Well firstly, we’re not the only country who have had this. Other countries have had building defects scandals and some handled them better than we have.

But other countries have also had poor regulations of different kinds. So, I think most people in other jurisdictions wouldn’t necessarily find this in and of itself remarkable. It’s just the frequency with which it happens. If you had one scandal and then that scandal was dealt with it, I think most people would go, you

know, OK. If you look at the Post Office scandal in Britain at the moment, that’s been highlighted. It’s the fact that we have this over and over again. Building defects aren’t just an issue of the Celtic Tiger era.

The law reform Commission in 1977 commissioned a very important report and identified it even back then, and with terraced homes built on a much more straightforward basis. That’s why they recommended back then, both in their 1977 report and in their report in the early 80’s, changing the law to have a legal obligation on the builder developer to comply with building regulations. That would then mean that if they didn’t, they would be legally pursuable for that failure. You know, I think people who are following the Stardust inquiry at the minute, would be shocked to learn that Justice Keane, in his own conclusions on the Stardust, noted that if the draft building control regulations that had been circulated by the Department of Environment as it was then in 1977. But then binned because indus didn’t like them. If they had been in force at the time of the Stardust fire, according to Justice Keane. That fire would have spread less rapidly and potentially had less of an impact in terms of loss of life. In fact, the testimony of building control and fire safety officials from Dublin corporation as it was at the time, are a really devastating critique of the failure of government to act.

So, I think probably what would surprise people from other jurisdictions isn’t that government failed, because unfortunately governments fail citizens and residents on a regular basis. It’s the repeated failures and then it’s the adding insult to injury today. That we’re now on our second scheme for defective block and it’s still not right. That we are over a decade into Celtic Tiger era defects, but we don’t even have a scheme.

We don’t even have draft legislation. And despite the fact that we know the end-to-end scheme in Leicester pyrite worked, it had to be fought tooth and nail by the impacted homeowners in the early years. Just as has been the case with Celtic Tiger multi-unit development owners and defective block owners. But once they got the scheme broadly speaking that scheme worked. There were some issues around the edges of it that have needed attention. But we had a scheme that worked, and yet both for defective block and we still don’t know the shape of the scheme for multi-unit development defects. But instead of just applying the scheme that was successful, they’re going to the very opposite of that possibly, or because they thought it might cost them less possibly, or because they felt it absolves them of liability. But in the end, it just cost more. Not just in financial terms, but in human terms and particularly emotional and psychological and physical impacts on homeowners. So, I think that’s

probably what would surprise people outside of Ireland, more than the original failure by government itself.

CPAG Campaign in the Media (Sept 2020 – Aug 2024) September 2020 McGarry, F. Structural issues leave North Clare homeowner in ‘living nightmare’, The Clare Champion, 04.09.2020, p 6.

McGarry, F. Grandmother afraid ‘house will fall down’ due to building defects, The Clare Champion,11.09.2020, p 2.

McGarry, F. Yet more homeowners counting the cost of severe ‘pyrite’ damage, The Clare Champion, 18.09.2020, p1 & 3.

McGarry, F. Housing minister slated over stance on Clare homeowners ‘pyrite’ plight, The Clare Champion, 25.09.2020, p 3.

Clare FM, Pyrite Destroys Clare Homes, 14.09.2020.

Clare FM, Claims That Clare Residents Being Ineligible For Pyrite Remediation Prograamme Amounts to ‘Discrimination’,14.09.2020, Clare FM, Fresh Calls For Clare To Be Included In Pyrite Scheme After Extension To Limerick, 28.09.2020.

October 2020 McGarry, F. Pyrite action group looks for more political backing, The Clare Champion, 02.10.2020, p 2. McGarry, F. Our home is falling slowly, homeowners meeting politicians on ‘pyrite’ problems, The Clare Champion, 09.10.2020, p 7.

Clare FM, Councillors Demand Supports For Clare’s Pyrite Homeowners, 22.10.2020.

November 2020 McGarry, F. Pyrite in homes in ‘not your fault’, The Clare Champion, 20.11.2020, p 4.

O’Rourke, R. ‘ You can actually hear it cracking’, Clare homeowners in fear of crumbling homes, Irish Examiner, 13.11.2020.

Clare FM, Hopes Decision On Compensation For Clare Pyrite Homeowners Won’t Be Dragged Out, 23.11.2020.

Clare FM, Fresh Hope That Clare Pyrite Homeowners Could Be Given State Support, 23.11.2020.

Newstalk, The Pat Kenny Show, A Campaign For Co Clare Be Recognised For Pyrite Issues, 06.11.2020.

RTE-TG4, Úinéiirí tithe sa Chlár ag irraidh cabhrach faoi bhrící lochtacha, le Tomás Ó Mainnín, 24.11.2020.

February 2021 McGarry, F. ‘Some Clare homes will have to be demolished’, The Clare Champion, 05.02.2021, p 1 & 2.

Clare FM, Local Authority Preparing Submission For Clare Inclusion In Pyrite Scheme, 04.02.2021.

Clare FM, Council’s Defective Block Scheme Application Will Be Subject To “Rigorous Analysis” – Department, 04.02.2021.

June 2021 McGarry, F. ‘My home is getting worse by the week’, The Clare Champion, 18.06.2021, p 1& 2.

Clare FM, Five Clare Homes That Tested Positive For Pyrite Only ‘The Tip of The Iceberg’, 11.06.2021.

Clare FM, Clare Pyrite Action Group To Join Protest in Dublin, 11.06.2021.

Clare FM, Clare Pyrite Action Group Among Those In Dublin For Redress Scheme Protest Today,15.06.2021.

Clare FM, Clare Homeowner’s Willing To Go To European Courts Over Pyrite Controversy, 15.06.2021.

Clare FM, Council Confirms Housing Estates Affected By Pyrite Issue In Clare, 16.06.2021.

Clare FM, Calls In Clare For Developers To Be Held Responsible For Pyrite Issues, 16.06.2021.

Clare FM, Mica And Pyrite Working Group To Meet For First Time Later, 30.06.2021.

RTE Radio 1, The Claire Byrne Show, Pyrite Extending Into Other Counties, by Barry Lennihan, 29.06.2021.

Virgin Media News, Homeowners whose homes have been affected by pyrite fight to be included in the State’s redress scheme, by Eric Clark, 16.06.2021.

July 2021 McGarry, F. Mayo pyrite activist tells Clare: ‘don’t sit back and take this,’ The Clare Champion, 02.07.2021, p 6.

McGarry, F. ‘Voices need to be heard’, The Clare Champion, 09.07.2021, p 6.

McGarry, F. Cracks appearing in local authority houses in Ennis, The Clare Champion, 09.07.2021, p 6.

McGarry, F. Family’s heartbreak at the prospect of demolishing home, The Clare Champion, 16.07.2021, p 1& 2.

McGarry, F. Sinn Féin leader’s shock at crumbling east Clare home, The Clare Champion, 23.07.2021, p 1&3.

McMahon, P. Hundreds more homes affected by Pyrite say Action Group, Clare Echo, 08.07.2021, p 14.

McMahon, P. Prominent Kilrush building affected by pyrite, Clare Echo, 15.07.2021, p 8.

McMahon, P. Pyrite nightmare and heartache for Sixmilebridge family, Clare Echo, 29.07.2021, p 1&11.

Clare FM, Clare Pyrite Founder Hits Out At Govt Following LPT Exemption For Mayo And Dublin Homeowners, 8.07.2021.

Clare FM, Finance Minister Says LPT Exemption For Pyrite Houses Doesn’t Extend To Clare Homeowners, 09.07.2021.

Clare FM, Housing Minister Says Financial Firms Could Make Contributions To Pyrite Redress Scheme, 15.07.2021.

Clare FM, No Fair Reason To Exclude Clare Homes From Defective Block Redress Scheme – Mary Lou Mc Donald, 22.07.2021.

Clare FM, Council Confirms Application To Extend Defective Concrete Block Scheme Application To Clare For Pyrite Affected Homeowners, 28.07.2021.

Clare FM, Clare Pyrite Homeowners Call On Housing Minister To Visit County, 28.07.2021.

Clare FM, Application To Defective Concrete Block Grant Scheme For Impacted Clare Residents, 28.07.2021.

August 2021 McGarry, F. Donegal campaigner expresses solidarity with Clare homeowners, The Clare Champion, 13.08.2021, p 3.

McGarry, F. Timeframe on pyrite redress decision called ‘farcical’, The Clare Champion, 13.08.2021, p 3.

McGarry, F. Minister knew of pyrite for nine years, The Clare Champion, 20.08.2021, p 1&2.

McGarry, F. Minister to visit Clare pyrite home, The Clare Champion, 27.08.2021, p 8.

McMahon, P. We are afraid of becoming ‘homeless pensioners’, Clare Echo, 05.08.2021, p 4.

McMahon, P. Pyrite problems to be put to Minister for Housing, Clare Echo, 26.08.2021, p 4.

Moore, A. Housing Minister refuses to commit to 100% redress for Pyrite scandal victims, Irish Examiner, 27.08.2021.

Clare FM, Clare Pyrite Action Group Call For ‘All Ireland’ Governing Authority To Administer Redress, 16.08.2021.

Clare FM, Fresh Calls For Clare Pyrite Redress To Be Fast Tracked Ahead of Housing Minister Visit, 27.08.2021.

Clare FM, Housing Minister Decision on Clare Pyrite Redress Application ‘Within Weeks’, 27.08.2021.

Clare FM, Clare Pyrite Action Group Vice Chair Hopeful Of Compensation ‘Within 12 Months’, 30.08.2021.

Clare FM, Clare Pyrite Issues ‘Tip Of The Iceberg’ As Minister Promises No Budgetary Constraints To Redress.

30.08.2021.

Clare FM, Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien Visits Clare and Speaks To Residents Affected By Pyrite.

30.08.2021.

September 2021 McGarry, F. ‘We don’t have 10 years to wait’, The Clare Champion, 03.09.2021, p 1.

McGarry, F. Minister: decision on redress for Clare in ‘matter of weeks’, The Clare Champion, 03.09.2021 p 6.

McGarry, F. Council informed of pyrite in Clare in 2018, The Clare Champion, 03.09.2021, p 6.

McGarry, F. Donegal activist: people must pull together, The Clare Champion, 03.09.2021, p 6.

McGarry, F. Homeowner suggests far more people affected in Clare than currently known, The Clare Champion, 03.09.2021, p 6.

McGarry, F. Demand for accountability from manufacturers, The Clare Champion, 03.09.2021, p 6.

McGarry, F. Geography can be no bar to redress access – O’Bróin, The Clare Champion, 10.09.2021, p 10.

McGarry, F. Carey clear on backing for 100% redress, The Clare Champion, 10.09.2021, p 10.

McGarry, F. Call for concrete blocks enquiry following report, The Clare Champion, 24.09.2021, p 6.

McGarry, F. More pyrite cases emerge in east of county, The Clare Champion, 24.09.2021, p 6.

McGarry, F. Carey and west TDs seeking Táiniste meeting, The Clare Champion, 24.09.2021, p 6.

McMahon, P. Council chief knew about pyrite in 2018, Clare Echo, 02.09.2021, p 1&17.

McMahon, P. Housing Minister visits homes affected by pyrite, Clare Echo, 02.09.2021, p 16.

McMahon, P. ‘I don’t have ten years to wait, I could be six feet under so I want my house replaced and repaired’, Clare Echo, 02.09.2021, p 16.

McMahon, P. Action group founder upbeat following ‘positive meeting with Minister, Clare Echo, 02.09.2012, p 17.

McMahon, P. ‘Determined to pursue every legal avenue’, Clare Echo, 02.09.2021, p 17.

McMahon, P. ‘It’s there in black and white’, Carey, Clare Echo, 16.09.2021, p 6.

McMahon, P. Pyrite threat to €8m Kilrush maritime centre, Clare Echo, 23.09.2021, p 1&4.

Owens,R. Council seeks €8m for Kilrush plan, The Clare Champion, 24.09.2021, p 6.

Clare FM, Clare Government TD Says Quarries Should Be Pursued For Pyrite Redress As new Scheme Being Developed. 23.09.2021.

Clare FM, Housing Department Says Inclusion Of Clare In Pyrite Redress Would Require Attorney General Consultation. 23.09.2021.

Clare FM, Clare Government TD Says Quarries Should Be Pursued For Pyrite Redress As New Scheme Being Developed, 23.09.2021.

Clare FM, Clare Pyrite Group Chair ‘Worried’ Homeowners Here Could Be Excluded From State Redress.

30.09.2021.

October 2021 McGarry, F. Clare’s blocks issue is same as Mayo’s, The Clare Champion, 01.10.2021, p 4.

McGarry, F. Wynne slams ‘delaying tactics’ on access to blocks redress scheme, The Clare Champion, 01.10.2021, p 4.

McGarry, F. Concern over ‘rebranding of states redress scheme’, The Clare Champion, 01.10.2021, p 4.

McGarry, F. Carey welcomes ‘constructive’ meeting on defective blocks, The Clare Champion, 01.10.2021, p 4.

McGarry, F. Why are we still waiting?, The Clare Champion, 08.10.2021, p 1&2.

McGarry, F. Fear about state jiggery pokery on scheme delay, The Clare Champion, 15.10.2021, p 5.

McGarry, F. Call for unity in redress pursuit, The Clare Champion, 15.10.2021, p 9.

McGarry, F. Plea not to allow block blame distract from main purpose, The Clare Champion, 15.10.2021, p 9.

McGarry, F. Drop party politics and keep focus on justice meeting told, The Clare Champion, 15.10.2021, p 9.

McGarry, F. Politicians hear of homeowners heartache, The Clare Champion, 15.10.2021, p 9.

McMahon, P. Pyrite homeowners demand answers six weeks after visit, Clare Echo, 07.10.2021, p 11.

McMahon, P. Inclusion in pyrite scheme assured, Clare Echo, 14.10.2021, p 6.

McMahon, P. Manufacturers of defective concrete block ‘have no morals’, Clare Echo, 14.10.2021, p 6.

McMahon, P. Dept of Housing ‘playing jiggery pokery’, Clare Echo, 14.10.2021, p 6.

McMahon, P. Politicians clash as pyrite meeting raises tensions, Clare Echo, 14.10.2021, p 6.

O’ Dowd, E. Clare pyrite homeowners: ‘It’s like trying to stop the flow of a river with your hands’, Irish Times, 08.10.2021.

Clare FM, Clare Pyrite Group Expressing Frustration Over Prospect Of ‘Another Winter’ Without Redress.

08.10.2021.

Clare FM, Clare Pyrite Group Chair Says People Will March ‘In Their Thousands’ If Homeowners Are Ignored From Redress. 08.10.2021.

Clare FM, Clare Pyrite Homeowners Won’t Rest Until They Can Access Redress Scheme, 08.10.2021.

Clare FM, Clare Pyrite Group Chair Believes 1,000 Houses In This County Could Be Impacted By The Mineral, 14.10.2021.

November 2021 McMahon, P. Anger reaching boiling point over pyrite redress scheme, Clare Echo, 25.11.2021, p 6.

Clare FM, Clare Decision On Defective Concrete Blocks Scheme ‘Not A Million Miles Away’, Says Minister, 12.11.2021.

Clare FM, Further Information Being Sought On Clare’s Application To Defective Concrete Block Scheme, 24.11.2021.

Clare FM, Clare Pyrite Action Group Say Protests Are ‘The Next Step’ To Redress Access, 24.11.2021.

December 2021 McGarry, F. Pyrite group turns up the heat on grant scheme access, The Clare Champion, 03.12.2021, p 1&2.

McGarry, F. Department challenges aspects of county councils pyrite report, The Clare Champion, 10.12.2021, p 1&2.

McGarry, F. Anger at broken promises on Clare access to redress, The Clare Champion, 10.12.2021, p 6.

McGarry, F. I don’t want my kids fearing their house will fall down, The Clare Champion, 10.12.2021, p 6.

McGarry, F. Taoiseach doesn’t give a continental about Clare homeowners, The Clare Champion, 10.12.2021, p 6.

McGarry, F. Furious reaction to newly revised blocks scheme, The Clare Champion, 10.12.2021, p 6.

McGarry, F. Howard seeks investigation into source of defective blocks, The Clare Champion, 17.12.2021, p 1&2.

McGarry, F. Clare pyrite homeowners in ‘pathfinder’ legal actions, The Clare Champion, 31.12.2021, p1.

McMahon, P. Pyrite homeowners left with broken promises as houses deteriorate, The Clare Echo, 02.12.2021.

McMahon, P. Department issue further delay to hopes for pyrite redress, The Clare Echo, 09.12.2021, p 10.

Clare FM, Clare’s Oireachtas Representatives Should Not Back ‘Discriminatory’ Redress Scheme Says Clare Pyrite Action Group. 01.12.2021.

Clare FM, Clare Government Senator ‘Concerned’ About Department Delays To Pyrite Redress Scheme Access. 03.12.2021.

Clare FM, Department Of Housing Says ‘Scale’ Of Pyrite Problem In Clare is ‘Unclear’. 09.12.2021.

Clare FM, Minister Of State At Department of Housing Addresses Issues in Clare, 10.12.2021.

Clare FM, Former Clare Mayor Calls For Inquiry Into Source of Pyrite And Mica Blocks, 16.12.2021.

January 2022 McGarry, F. Further testing undertaken to satisfy Department pyrite query, The Clare Champion, 21.01.2022, p 4.

McGarry, F. Clare group rails against ‘undeniable discrimination’, The Clare Champion, 21.001.2022, p 4 McGarry, F. Minister denies ‘raising bar’ for Clare access to redress scheme, 28.01.2022, p 10.

McMahon, P. ‘Undeniable discrimination’ of homes excluded from redress, Clare Echo, 20.01.2022, p 7.

McMahon, P. Pyrite homeowners to take to streets, Clare Echo, 27.01.2022, p 8.

Clare FM, Clare Pyrite Action Group Chair Accuses Department Of ‘Changing Rules’ On Redress Scheme, 27.01.2022.

Clare FM, Clare Pyrite Action Group ‘Losing Confidence’ In Local Political Representatives, 28.01.2022.

Clare FM, Frustrated Homeowners Affected By Pyrite Take Part In Protest, 29.01.2022.

Clare FM, Clare TD Hopeful Pyrite Affected Homeowners In Clare Will Have Access To Redress In Coming Months, 31.01.2022.

Virgin Media News, Pyrite affected homeowners set to protest in Clare, by Eric Clarke, 27.02.2022.

Clare FM, Clare Homeowners Affected By Pyrite Take Part in Protest, 31.01.2022.

February 2022 McGarry, F. Politicians are put on notice, The Clare Champion, 04.02.2022, p 6.

McGarry, F. ‘Humanitarian crisis’ has roots in 1960’s says campaigner, The Clare Champion, 04.02.2022, p 6.

McGarry, F. ‘The Government aren’t slighting me, they’re slighting the people of Clare’, The Clare Champion, 04.02.2022, p 6.

McGarry, F. Politicians accept that patience is wearing thin over pyrite, The Clare Champion, 04.02.2022, p 6.

McGarry, F. They’re finally listening, The Clare Champion, 25.02.2022, p 1&2.

McGarry, F. Storm fears for pyrite homeowners, The Clare Champion, 25.02.2022, p 3.

McMahon, P. ‘Everyone in Clare should be furious’, Clare Echo, 03.02.2021, p 1&8.

McMahon, P. A ‘Humanitarian crisis’, Clare Echo, 03.02.2021, p 8.

McMahon, P. No pyrite detected in Comprehensive School, Clare Echo, 03.02.2021, p 8.

McMahon, P. Pyrite Action Group question support for Kilrush Centre, Clare Echo, 24.02.2022, p 9.

Ryan, O. No pyrite in St Patricks Comprehensive building, The Clare Champion, 11.02.2022, p 15.

Clare FM, Clare Pyrite Group Chair Says Proving Damage Like ‘Finding Blade of Grass In Croagh Patrick’, 24.02.2022.

March 2022 McGarry, F. Pyrite pain persists in Clare, The Clare Champion, 11.03.2022, p 8.

April 2022 McGarry, F. Suppliers must not be let off the hook, The Clare Champion, 29.04.2022, p 1&2.

McMahon, P. Clare homes can get pyrite payments, Clare Echo, 07.04.2022, p 7.

O’Rourke, R. 620 homes in Clare hit by pyrite, says council, Irish Examiner, 30.04.2022, p 1.

Clare FM, Clare Pyrite Action Chair Says It’s ‘inevitable’ Gov Will Be Held To Account For Defective Blocks, 25.04.2022.

Clare FM, Reports Clare Could Be County Worst Affected By Pyrite, 30.04.2022.

May 2022 Kierans, J. €5BN Cost Of Pyrite Scandal, Irish Daily Star, 07.05.2022, p 22.

McGarry, F. The Stress of this will kill people, The Clare Champion, 06.05.2022, p 1&2.

McGarry, F. Council preparing further pyrite report for Department, The Clare Champion 06.05.2022, p 2.

McGarry, F. Council’s ‘irrefutable’ proof of pyrite in Clare, The Clare Champion, 13.05.2022, p 3.

McGarry, F. Group fears a lack of scrutiny of blocks bill, The Clare Champion, 20.05.2022, p 7.

McGarry, F. Martin’s waring on delay of pyrite scheme, The Clare Champion, 27.05.2022, p 4.

McMahon, P. Pyrite problems getting worse, Clare Echo, 05.05.2022, p 7.

McMahon, P. New report shows ‘irrefutable evidence’ of pyrite, Clare Echo, 12.05.2021, p 10.

O’ Dowd, E. ‘It’s been hell’: Clare homeowners reiterate calls to be included in defective block redress scheme, Irish Times, 13.05.2022.

Clare FM,Clare Pyrite Action Group Hopeful Of Resolution To State Of Limbo Over Application For Redress, 06.05.2022.

Clare FM, Calls For Prompt Response From Department As ‘Irrefutable Evidence’ Of Pyrite Found in Clare, 09.05.2022.

Clare FM, No More “Faffing About” In Delivering Redress For Clare Pyrite Affected Homeowners Insists Clare Gov TD, 09.05.2022.

Clare FM, OPW Confirms Presence of Pyrite In Clare Public Building, 30.05.2022.

June 2022 McGarry, F. More than 1,000 homes in Clare could have pyrite, The Clare Champion, 03.06.2022, p 1.

McGarry, F. Fear of homeowner penalty in scheme, The Clare Champion, 03.06.2022, p 6.

McGarry, F. Pyrite Found in Significant Government Building in Clare, The Clare Champion, 03.06.2022, p 6.

McGarry, F. Group appeals: don’t suffer in silence over blocks issue, The Clare Champion, 10.06.2022, p 6 McGarry, F. ‘Getting our campaign this far has been incredibly stressful’, The Clare Champion, 17.06.2022, p 1.

McGarry, F. Scrutiny of blocks grant scheme politically divisive, The Clare Champion, 17.06.2022, p 5.

McGarry, F. Minister finally delivers for Clare but concerns persist, The Clare Champion, 17.06.2022, p 5.

McGarry, F. Pyrite action group concerned over brief Oireachtas audience, The Clare Champion, 24.06.2022, p 1&2.

McMahon, P. Pyrite proven ‘beyond reasonable doubt’, Clare Echo, 09.06.2021, p 6.

McMahon, P. Pyrite redress finally but homeowners still on edge, Clare Echo, 16.06.2022, p 1&6.

McMahon, P. Pyrite Action Group ‘not being told a single word’, Clare Echo, 16.06.2021, p 6.

McMahon, P. Pyrite scheme needs scrutiny, Clare Echo, 23.06,2021, p 2.

McMahon, P. Two quarries in Clare supplied pyrite blocks, Clare Echo, 30.06.2022, p1&6.

Clare FM, Clare & Limerick Expected To Be Included in 100% Mica Redress Scheme From Next Week.

12.06.2022.

Clare FM, Clare Set To Be Rubber Stamped Into Defective Concrete Blocks Scheme This Morning, 14.06.2022.

Clare FM, Clare Pyrite Action Group Say Inclusion In Redress Scheme Is Only The Beginning Of Long Battle, 14.06.2022.

Clare FM, Claims It Would Be ‘Nonsensical’ To Leave Clare Homeowners Out Of Pyrite Redress Talks, 15.06.2022.

Clare FM, Clare Pyrite Action Group Critical Of Assessment Process To Access State Redress Scheme, 24.06.2022.

Newstalk, The Pat Kenny Show, Reaction to the government’s further extension to the Mica Scheme, Conor Sheehan Labour and Dr. Martina Cleary CPAG, 15.07.2022.

RTE News, Clare pyrite group in cautious welcome to grant scheme, by Cathy Halloran, 14.06.2022.

July 2022 McGarry, F. Action group founder warns of widespread blocks problems, The Clare Champion, 01.07.2022, p 4.

McGarry, F. Tensions mount as blocks bill is ‘rammed through’, The Clare Champion, 08.07.2022, p 2.

McGarry, F. McNamara raises quarries question, The Clare Champion, 08.07.2022, p 2.

McGarry, F. Government survive motion but ‘can’t defend Mid-West record’ – TD, The Clare Champion, 15.07.2022, p 8.

McGarry, F. Friction between Clare TDs over Blocks Bill, The Clare Champion, 15.07.2022, p 9.

McGarry, F. Defective blocks Gill passes Seanad, The Clare Champion, 22.07.2022, p 3.

McMahon, P. Pyrite Action Group slam attempt to ‘railroad’ legislation on defective block scheme, 07.07.

2022, p 12.

Clare FM, Clare Pyrite Action Group Ready to Take To The Streets If Redress Scheme Not Amended, 01.07.2022.

Clare FM, Fears Homeowners In Clare Could Be ‘Left Behind’, Unless Defective Concrete Blocks Scheme Amended. 01.07.2022.

Clare FM, Chair of Clare Pyrite Action Group Hits Out At Local Councillors Claiming Lack of Support In Fight for Redress, 06.07.2022.

Clare FM, Clare Councillors Say Fit For Purpose Redress Scheme Vital For Homeowners Affected By Pyrite, 06.07.2022.

Clare FM, Minister Vows State Will Pursue Quarries Responsible For Defective Concrete Blocks In Clare, 07.06.2022.

Clare FM, Clare Independent TD Won’t Support Government in No Confidence Motion, 07.07.2022.

RTE Radio 1, Mica legislation, Dr. Martina Cleary, Founder of Clare Pyrite Action Group;Malcolm Noonan Green Party TD, Roisín Shortall Social Democrats, Eoin Ó Broin SF. Sept 2022 Clare FM, Clare Pyrite Action Group Chair Says ‘New Thinking’ Needed to Alleviate Soaring Rebuildiing Costs, 19.09.2022.

Clare FM, Clare Builder Accuses Government Of Not Having Will To Solve Housing Crisis, 29.09.2022.

Oct 2022 McGarry, F. Concrete levy is blasted by TDs, The Clare Champion, 14.10.2022, p.4.

McGarry, F. Adjusted levy no substitute for defective blocks inquiry, The Clare Champion, 21.10.2022, p.6.

McGarry,F. ‘Trapped’ Pyrite homeowners make plea to Minister O’Brien, Clare Champion, 28.10.2022, p.6.

Ryan, Owen. Crowe points the finger at defective block culprits, The Clare Champion, 07.10.2023, p.7.

Clare FM, Chair Of Clare Housing Committee Says Gov ‘Scored Own Goal’ With Concrete Levy, 03.10.2022.

Clare FM,Clare Senator Calls For Examination Of An Board Pleanala Judicial Review System, 03.10.2022.

Clare FM, Clare TD Insists Government Has ‘No Choice’ But To Review The Concrete Levy, 05.10.2022. Clare FM, Clare Government TD Insists ‘Devil Will Be In The Detail’, In Concrete Levy, 05.10.2022.

Clare FM, Clare Contractor Claims Concrete Tax Is ‘Backdoor Tax For Ordinary People’, 19.10.2022.

Clare FM, Clare Government TD Still Wants Aspects Of Concrete Levy To Be Amended, 19.10.2022.

Dec 2022 McGarry, F. ‘Pyrite scheme ‘a big rush to go nowhere’ – campaigner, The Clare Champion, 09.12.2022, p.9.

McMahon, P. Pyrite homeowners living in purgatory, The Clare Echo, 22.12.2022.

Clare FM, Council to Write to Housing Minister Seeking ‘Timelines’ On Pyrite Redress Scheme, 13.12.2022.

Clare FM, Clare Homeowners Afraid To Fix Cracks In Walls As Uncertainty Around Accessing Pyrite Redress Lingers, 14.12.2022.

Jan 2023 McGarry, F. O’Brien slammed for lack of clarity on pyrite grant, The Clare Champion, 06.01.2023, p.1-2.

McGarry, F. Concern at when redress access is available, The Clare Champion, 20.02.2023, p.4.

McGarry, F. Call for grant support to tackle pyrite in Clare home foundations, The Clare Champion, 20.02.2023, p 4.

Clare FM, Clare Pyrite Action Say Government Taking Piecemeal Approach to Redress Scheme, 04.01.2023.

Clare FM, Local Pyrite Action Group Call For Confirmation That Clare Will Be Included In Redress Scheme From Outset, 19.01.2023.

Feb 2023 McGarry, F. Pyrite Group Calls For Clarity, The Clare Champion, 24.02.2023.

March 2023 McGarry, F. Meeting Hears Call For Support, The Clare Champion, 03.03.2023, p 4.

McGarry, F. Councillor lashes pyrite ‘public relations stunt’, The Clare Champion, 10.03.2023, p 2.

Clare FM, Clare Pyrite Action Group Says Homeowners Here Facing Potential 23% Rise in Remediation Costs, 06.03.2023.

Clare FM, Clare Pyrite Chair Calls For Dedicated Housing Agency Office in MidWest For Redress Applications, 13.03.2023.

April 2023 McGarry, F. Pyrite grant regulations expected next month, The Clare Champion, 28.04.2023, p 3.

May 2023 McGarry, F. Pyrite homeowners still ‘wallowing in the dark’, The Clare Champion, 05.05.2023, p 2.

June 2023 McGarrry, F. Campaigners to meet over further blocks grant delay, The Clare Champion, 16.06.2023, p 4.

McGarry, F. Pyrite confirmed at Shannon Garda Station, The Clare Champion, 23.06.2023, p 1-2.

McGarry, F. Patience is running out for Clare pyrite homeowners, The Clare Champion, 23.06.2023, p 6.

McGarry, F. ‘If you don’t live in a house with pyrite, you don’t understand’, The Clare Champion, 23.06.2023, p 6.

McGarry, F. Crowe insists pyrite quarries will be pursued, The Clare Champion, 23.06.2023, p 6.

McGarrry, F. Council seek go ahead for pyrite grant facilitator, The Clare Champion, 30.06.2023, p 3.

McGarry, F. O’Brien under fire over pyrite scheme delay, The Clare Champion, 30.06.2023, p 3.

McGarry, F. Crowe quizzes Finance Minister over pyrite home remortgaging plight, The Clare Champion, 30.06.2023, p 3.

Clare FM, Clare Pyrite Action Group Call For Immediate Government Remediation, 13.06.2023.

Clare FM, Clare Pyrite Action Group Brand Government Delay In Opening Compensation Scheme As ‘Indefensible’, 19.06.2023.

Clare FM, Clare Independent TD Claims Health Of Pyrite Homeowners Devastated by Government Inaction, 22.06.2023.

July 2023 McGarry, F. Finish line in sight for pyrite homeowners, The Clare Champion, 07.07.2023, p 1-2.

McGarry,F. Terms of pyrite scheme are ‘grossly offensive’ says CPAG, 21.07.2023, p 5.

McMahon, P. Minister O’Brien signs off on regulations to approve redress for Clare pyrite homeowners, The Clare Echo, 07.07.2023.

McMahon, P. Redress for pyrite homes in Clare approved but companies behind defective blocks must be pursued, The Clare Echo, 07.07.2023.

Clare FM, Fears Further Challenges Await Clare Pyrite Affected Homeowner in Wake Of Redress Scheme Announcement, 04.07.2023.

Clare FM, Clare Pyrite Action Group Tells Oireachtas That Enhanced Redress Scheme is Not Acceptable, 14.07.2023.

Aug 2023 Danaher, D. Homeowners being hampered by ‘cumbersome’ application process, The Clare Champion, 25.08.2023, p 1-2.

Nov 2023 Clare FM, Clare Pyrite Action Group Hitting Out At Government For Continuing To Drag Its Heels, 22.11.2023.

Sept 2023 Dannaher, D. No end to pyrite pain despite opening of grant scheme, The Clare Champion, 01.10.2023, p.6.

Jan 2024 Clare FM, Calls For Clarity On Fair Deal Access For Clare Pyrite Affected Homeowners, 09.01.2024.Clare FM, Clare Pyrite Action Group Says Red Tape Delays Are Leaving People Affected in Unsafe Homes, 22.02.2024.

Feb 2024 Clare FM, Clare TD Calls For “Offending Parties” In Pyrite Scandal To Be Held To Account, 28.02.2024.

Clare FM, Clare Pyrite Action Group Claims Affected Homeowners Have Lost Faith in Politicians, 20.02.2024.

March 2024 Dannaher, D, ‘Clare Pyrite Action Group Chair Joins Sinn Féin Local Election Ticket’, 29.03.2024, p 4.

Clare FM, Clare Pyrite Action Chair Throws Hat Into Local Election Ring Amid Redress Frustration, 21.02.2024.

May 2024 Clare FM, Calls For Urgent Clarity On Mortgage Value Of Clare Pyrite Impacted Homes, 02.05.2024.

Aug 2024 Dannaher, D, Homeowners face ‘tens of thousands’ in pyrite bills, The Clare Champion, 09.08.2028, p 1-2.

Clare FM, Clare Pyrite Action Group Says EU Legal Action Against Ireland Must Address Construction Industry Supplier’s Influence, 01.08.2024.

Fools Gold

Limited Edition Publication © Martina Cleary 2024 This practice-based research and publication has been supported by The Arts Council of Ireland, Clare County Council, CREATE Ireland and the Technological University of the Shannon, TUS.