Housing minister proposes retroactive pyrite rates increase for homeowners

THE Minister for Housing is seeking to ensure that the Defective Concrete Block Redress Scheme can apply retroactively.

A ten percent increase in the maximum rate payable under the scheme was announced for eligible homeowners affected by pyrite, a contaminant which has condemned hundreds of homes around Mayo.

A grant of up to €462,000 will be payable under proposed changes to the scheme. However, the increase in the maximum payable grant has yet to be enacted in legislation.

Concern has also been expressed by Mayo homeowners who had to pay tens of thousands to rebuild their homes after accessing the existing scheme. This is due to compensation being calculated primarily based on the square footage of the house, rather than the total rebuild costs.

In an email to Cllr Michael Loftus (Fianna Fáil), Kevin Kelly, Chief Executive of Mayo County Council, said that the Minister for Housing, Darragh O’Brien TD, ‘intends to bring a proposal to Government in the near future to ensure that the increases in both the cap and rates can apply retrospectively’.

“This will be a once-off transitional measure which the Minister believes is an equitable approach that is in keeping with the intention of the Oireachtas when the Act was passed by the Oireachtas in 2022,” wrote Mr Kelly.

The increase in the grant cap and rates of the redress scheme were announced to reflect the inflated costs of construction in recent years.

Speaking at the monthly meeting of Ballina Municipal District, Cllr Loftus welcomed the 10 percent increase to the maximum grant, but said it should apply retrospectively for homeowners left out of pocket after rebuilding their homes.

“The ten percent increase has been good, but it must be retrospective for people who had houses completed, and I hope that would be something that the government would have to look at,” said Cllr Loftus.

Expressed dismay

Cllr John O’Hara (Fine Gael) expressed dismay that there was still no funding in the scheme for walls affected by pyrite.

Cllr O’Hara recently highlighted a case where cattle escaped from a field and walked onto a road in Crossmolina after a pyrite-infected wall collapsed.

A number of similar walls are said to be located across some housing estates and public roads in Mayo.

Cllr O’Hara said the council should be ‘pushing’ for the rebuilding of such walls to be funded under the pyrite redress scheme.

“Them walls, when they kill someone it’s too late,” the Bonniconlon-based councillor said.

He also hit out at the levy applied to new concrete blocks to fund the pyrite redress scheme, which, he said, was increasing the price of building a new house.

A total of 402 Stage 1 Confirmation of Eligibility Applications for the pyrite redress scheme have been received by Mayo County Council to date. Two-hundred-and-eleven of these have received Stage 2 approval while 31 properties have been rebuilt.

The overall cost of the Defective Concrete Blocks Scheme to the exchequer is now estimated to be at least €2.3 billion.