Foxford based Fine Gael councillor Neil Cruise has issued a stark warning to councillors in all areas of the county that the effects of pyrite in homes, will be coming to their areas, if it has not affected them already.
Cllr Cruise was speaking at a meeting of the Housing Strategic Policy Committee (SPC ) of Mayo County Council this week, on foot of a motion passed by the main council at its February meeting, where it was agreed to to set up a committee to monitor the roll-out of the Defective Concrete Blocks Scheme 2021.
He told the SPC that: "If you haven't got it in your area, God help you, it is coming; it is coming to every corner of this county and it is going to come in a big, big way."
The councillor also said: "This is one that is going to come down the road, whatever numbers we have in front of us today, they could get an awful lot worse. People are in an awful state; the cases that we're hearing from around here are savage, and I mean savage. This is going to hit us with severe force; the lack of affordable rents and housing supplies, all these issues are going to come into this, this is going to be an enormous issue for us."
Speaking about the new committee, he added, "I want to know how this is going to be done, I don't want to be coming back in three or six months time looking for updates on this, we have to get proactive on this one or we are going to be behind the curve more and falling further."
Director of Services for Mayo County Council, Tom Gilligan, informed the SPC that following on from the motion being passed at the full council meeting, an initial meeting will take place shortly to see who will make up the committee, how many times it will meet, and the terms of reference; then it will be up to the political groups to decide on the members involved, with the chair of the Housing SPC, Cllr John Cribben, being one member of the committee.
Cllr Cruise responded, saying: We brought this motion on behalf of the North Mayo Pyrite group and they have asked that yourself and the CE be on this committee too; it is what they asked us for."
The original motion to form the committee, which was approved at the full meeting of the council, was put forward jointly by Cllr Cruise and Cllr Jarlath Munnelly and read: "Given the recent announcement of the Defective Concrete Block Scheme 2021, the relevance of this scheme within our county and the suffering that a large group within this county are enduring due to the effect of Pyrite in their homes, we respectfully seek the support of our fellow Councillors in order to form a committee within Mayo County Council in order to monitor the progress of the rollout of this scheme.
"We suggest that this committee should be formed as follows: (1 )The committee should be a subcommittee of the Housing SPC, (2 ) This subcommittee should meet once a month, virtually and there should be provision made for public attendance, (3 ) This subcommittee should include the Cathaoirleach of the Housing SPC as chairperson, three to four Councillors and other relevant stakeholders. Both the CE of Mayo County Council and Director of services with responsibility for Housing should sit on this committee and (4 ) The outcomes of each subcommittee meeting should include detailed updates on Pyrite in Mayo including: [A] Information regarding Stage 1 & Stage 2 of the Scheme including numbers of applications, numbers of approvals, numbers of applications pending and the average duration of applications from submission to approval. [B] Information regarding Stage 1 & Stage 2 expenditure on this scheme in County Mayo. [C] To question why any application may have been asked for further information and to share why this may have occurred. This information should be used constructively in order to improve and streamline the application process. [D] To monitor the length of time that applications are with Mayo County Council before approval. We are making this request in recognition of the suffering of a large number of citizens of this county who now seek redress through the Defective Concrete Blocks Scheme 2021."
