HOUSES ARE CRUMBLING
Residents of seaside town say properties are falling apart and plead with Housing Minister for help
Repairs: Des Whyte outside his home in Red Island, Skerries, Co. Dublin
SIX north Dublin residents who live in Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien’s constituency are pleading with him to save their homes from collapse.
Families in the Red Island estate in the seaside town of Skerries have become the latest group to claim their homes are falling apart before their eyes.
The cause of deterioration in the blockwork remains a mystery as the families await further tests in an effort to learn more.
Scenes of outer walls covered in cracks, peeling plaster and blocks crumbling to the touch are similar to pictures of the houses affected by the mica and pyrite controversies in Donegal and Mayo.
However, unlike these West of Ireland communities, the people living in Red Island are not part of any redress scheme.
While the residents are not looking for preferential treatment for living in Mr O’Brien’s constituency, they believe he should address their housing defects as a matter of priority before their homes deteriorate any more.
Three of the six homeowners, who are retired or approaching retirement, have spent upwards of €100,000 each to carry out essential works on their property.
One resident, Brian Lennon, told the Irish Daily Mail that his wife had to postpone her retirement just so they could afford the repairs. The couple first discovered cracks on the outer wall of their seaside home ten years ago, but in 2017 significant amounts of water began to leak into the property.
Mr Lennon said: ‘The bricks were literally dissolving into soft, black, soil-like material and water started coming through somehow on the bottom floor. We spent three years chasing insurance companies and estate agents, but things got so bad that we simply had to foot the bill ourselves.
‘We eventually got the outer leaf of the house repaired in 2020 which was a massive job that took months and cost us about €100,000.
‘It took a terrible amount of stress out on us. We’ve worked hard all our lives to pay for the home of our dreams, but little did we know bad bricks were used to build it.’
He added: ‘Nobody is claiming responsibility, so the Government should take it on board to find the company responsible for supplying the bad blocks and make them pay compensation. They have to protect people like us, otherwise the housing industry will fall into disrepute.
‘Across the road from us we have the Martello tower that was built in the 1800s. That structure can stay in perfect condition for all those years, so why can’t our homes?’
Initial engineer reports carried out on the properties’ bricks ruled out the presence of pyrite, though some tests showed high levels of mica, while other tests did not.
‘They must protect people like us’
Residents believe the issue of defective bricks is far more common in Dublin than what is already known.
Resident Des Whyte said: ‘A few years after I started noticing cracks in my house, I got a builder around to repair them and I thought that was the problem sorted.
‘But then cracks began to appear all around my property, and I noticed that the same thing was happening to all of my neighbours. I realised then that we were in deep trouble.
‘This is a countrywide issue and any person who bought their house in good faith and is facing major damage through no fault of their own should be compensated.’
Another house, in the centre of Skerries town, had evidence of cracked walls and deteriorating bricks, similar to the properties in Red Island.
While the owner said that her home has ‘serious issues’ with cracks and bad blocks, she declined to comment as the matter is before the courts.
Speaking to the Mail, a spokesman for Mr O’Brien said the minister had met the residents to discuss extending the redress scheme to them.
‘Minister O’Brien has met with the Red Island residents and the department is continuing to engage with local authorities who have concerns about potential defective block issues in their area,’ the spokesman sauid. ‘Any extension of the scheme to other local authority areas can only be considered once the same rigorous analysis as that put in place prior to the rollout of the scheme to the counties of Donegal and Mayo has to be undertaken.
‘This would involve the relevant local authority taking a lead role in determining that issues arising in homes in their area are in fact due to the presence of excessive amounts of mica or pyrite in the aggregate used to manufacture the concrete blocks, and secondly to quantify the likely extent of the problem.’
Meanwhile, a group of Mayo homeowners affected by the ongoing pyrite controversy have appealed the decision by Mayo County Council to reject their applications for redress.
They were deemed ineligible for grant aid, despite reports by engineers which stated that their homes had been damaged.
Cracks have been appearing in homes across north Mayo for decades, with independent tests subsequently confirming that the damage was caused by pyrite levels in concrete blocks. ian.begley@dailymail.ie