THE heat has been turned up considerably on Clare’s politicians over the level of support for homeowners affected by pyrite.

As the Department of Housing continues to liaise with the Council over an application for access to a State grant scheme, emotions are running high for affected homeowners.

More than 200 people marched through Ennis on Saturday afternoon in what was described as “the first of many” protests.

The assembled politicians, including most of Clare’s Oireachtas members and several councillors, were warned that action is expected if they want to keep their seats.

Dr Martina Cleary said Clare Pyrite Action Group (CPAG) is ready to field candidates in the local and general elections if they don’t secure access to an adequate grant scheme.

“We didn’t create this, it’s their lack of legislation over decades that has created this,” Dr Cleary told the assembled media.

“They better get their priorities right… Sure they’re only politicians, we can get rid of them in another year and a half. Our houses are going to be rotting for 30 years. Donegal is going to run a Mica candidate. We can run Pyrite candidates. Let’s see how they like that.”

When probed on the issue of fielding candidates in Clare, Dr Cleary said: “What else are we going to do other than sitting at home watching the house fall on top of us?

“What else are we going to do except try to help ourselves?

“We’ve heard every single promise under the sun, ‘You’ll have it by Christmas’, ‘We’ll get it for Mayo and Donegal and then ye’ll be grand’. No we won’t. Do your job, you’re getting paid for it.

Up to 300 people at a #pyrite protest in the centre of Ennis today, calling for access to the Defective Concrete Blocks Scheme, plus a fresh overhaul of the grant ⁦@ClareChampion⁩ ⁦@ClarePyrite⁩ pic.twitter.com/esW8hTrr0k

— Fiona McGarry (@FeeMcGarry) January 29, 2022

“These politicians don’t understand because they go home to their lovely houses every night. They don’t have to sit there and worry about every storm coming in and they don’t have to get up in the morning and look at all the cracks in the house and wonder what they’re going to be doing in their retirement. They don’t have to live with the physical and mental anxiety and stress that I’ve seen up and down this county.”

Vice chairperson of CPAG, Mary Hanley, who hosted Minister Darragh O’Brien when he visited Clare last year expressed her frustration.

“The Minister for Housing visited my house on August 27 and he was such a lovely man,” she told the crowd.

“He was so pleasant, he was so nice and he was feeling so sorry for me. I said to him, ‘If this grant isn’t given soon, I’ll be six foot under’. His answer to me was, ‘Oh, not at all Mary no, a couple of weeks’. Now, it’s a hell of a long time since August 27 and I haven’t seen or heard from Darragh O’Brien since.”

Mrs Hanley, a retired school principal warned the politicians in attendance that the patience of homeowners is running out.

“This is our first protest,” she said, “but unless something happens very soon, it won’t be the last. It will be the first of many. Every politician in this county – the councillors, the TDs and the senators – I know you all want to be back in their offices in two years’ time.

“Well then, you better get up and start talking to Darragh O’Brien, because lads he doesn’t listen to us. He’d better start listening to ye. We won’t listen to ye either if ye don’t do something.”

Dr Cleary told protesters that the houses of those affected have become “ticking time bombs”.

The Crusheen woman described a series of queries sent by the Department of Housing to Clare County Council, on a technical report the authority submitted last July, as “an insult to the intelligence of the people of County Clare”.

She said the letter, sent in December, was “an exercise in trying to force us, our experts and the county council into a prolonged game of ruling out a non-exhaustive, never-ending list of what might be causing the gaping holes and the damage to our homes, while blatantly ignoring the evidence on the table”.

She said that even if the recently-revised grant scheme was opened to Clare, many homeowners would not qualify under the new terms.

“They’re putting lots of different clauses in there. One of them is this damage threshold and what that actually means is that a government-appointed inspector will come out to your house and say, ‘Do you know what? You’ve got damage, but it’s not damaged enough.”

Dr Cleary described the publicity around the new scheme and promises of 100% as “propaganda”.

“Let me make it very clear to you, it’s not,” she said. ‘It’s very few houses that will ever in a million years get that. The demolition options available within that scheme are not going to be accessible to the vast majority. We have to stand up now and we have to really make our voices loud and clear.”

Appealing to the politicians present, Dr Cleary said: “Do not pass that [scheme]”.

She also asked that Clare be represented on the working group which was tasked with reviewing the grant.

Members of CPAG were supported by campaigners from Donegal and Mayo – the only two counties currently covered by the Defective Concrete Blocks Grant Scheme – as well as homeowners from Limerick and Sligo.