‘I don’t want my kids fearing their house will fall down’

EMOTIONS ran high at a meeting in Ennis on Friday night last when homeowners affected by pyrite voiced concern that they are still not eligible to apply for State redress.
One homeowner, among the crowd of over 50 who attended, shared her story and appealed for action for the hundreds like her in Clare.
She said she is particularly concerned over discussion in the media about the burden that the revised €2.2 billion Defective Concrete Blocks Grant Scheme will put on the tax payer.
“I have been a PAYE worker all my life,” she said. “I pay tax for very little in return, because I look at the health system and I look at the schooling system. I have two kids with ADHD and I have to fight for everything.
“Can I boycott my taxes? Or will I end up in jail?
“When I hear people saying, ‘Oh, we can’t fund this [scheme] with the taxpayer’s money… Jesus Christ, we’re are the taxpayers.
“I’ve paid a significant amount of tax in my lifetime that could pay for several houses. Give us relief on our taxes. Give back our taxes.
“I’m looking at every crack in this country. I can guarantee you, this is the tip of the iceberg, and I can tell you that if we all collectively, boycott taxes, then we’ll see serious change. Because we can’t go on like this.”
The woman then related how pyrite is affecting her home.
“Since the age of 11, I dreamed about building my own house,” she said.
“I worked so hard and we were coming to the end of paying off our lovely house and then this hit. After 18 months of Covid lockdown, this hit. My mother said, ‘I can’t believe this has happened to your house. You will have worked so hard and with the best of everything into it’. I can’t believe it either.
“But you know, what would be the worst injustice? If I leave all this affect my mental health and the health of my family. We don’t talk about this in the family, because I don’t want my kids to grow up, fearing that their house is going to fall down.
“We’re at Stage Two, but it’s deteriorating, really fast, really fast. I painted the inside of our houses to make it cosy for Christmas, because I don’t want to think of it outside.”
The homeowner said that as the weeks go by, she and her husband are becoming aware of further issues.
“Last week my husband come up to me said, ‘I think we’re in trouble. Look at this end of the house. The wall is coming away from the ceiling’.
“We worked and paid for every penny. We got the best tradesmen. We were the best payers to pay the people on time. I have receipts of who we bought everything from.
“We went with the best we wanted to build quality because this was my dream.
“Thankfully, we’ve had an absolutely fabulous 15 years in this beautiful house, and to me, the value has already been returned. We have to just be more intolerant of the lack of integrity, of, you know, civil servants wasting money, wasting time, no action. We’ve got to take action, because these are real lives.”