Rose Conway-Walsh demands reimbursement for pyrite-affected homeowners
Rose Conway-Walsh spoke about homeowners affected by pyrite and mica, arguing they should be exempt from property tax and reimbursed for past payments. She urged the Minister to remove the self-assessment requirement and to ensure retrospective refunds and clear support for testing costs.
Tax exemption and reimbursement
She said properties in Mayo with pyrite or mica were effectively worth zero and that charging property tax on them was unfair. She called for an exemption to be applied retrospectively so affected homeowners receive reimbursement for taxes already paid.
Testing costs and financial burden
She highlighted the €6,000 upfront testing cost required to apply for the scheme and said people were scrambling for funds, borrowing from credit unions and family members. She argued it is unreasonable to ask homeowners to pay that amount before being eligible for support.
Concerns about local authority capacity
She warned that Mayo County Council had no funds to rehouse people whose homes are crumbling and linked that lack of capacity to the urgency of resolving the pyrite and mica situation. She said small issues raised in meetings with the Minister were not being resolved and called for greater clarity.
Demand for immediate action
She pressed the Minister to fix the exemption without a self-assessment requirement and to ensure it is applied retrospectively so people are reimbursed. She insisted the matter needed to be resolved promptly so homeowners are not left paying tax on worthless, damaged properties.
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Thank you very much. I just want to speak on those amendments because I think they are crucially important and I want to ask you, Minister, do you really think that anybody would profess to have pyrite or mica were they not almost certain that they had it in their homes? People do not make up these stories. People do not want to have pyrite. They do not want to have mica. We have asked for years and years for them to be exempt from property tax. Because the properties, I speak for the properties in Mayo, were worth zero. Zero. So how can you have a property tax based on value then for those homes? And time and time again we had been refused, as you said, revenue are doing their job properly, but they did not have permission to give the exemption under that. It was totally wrong that these people were watching their houses falling down and at the same time had to pay the property tax on it. Those people at a very minimum need to be reimbursed, but we cannot ask them to pay €6,000 up front. People trying to get the tests done as they are at the moment are trying to scramble many of them for the money to do that with credit unions and to borrow from family members and other people just to get so that they can apply for the scheme. It is vitally important that we do not go out of here tonight without having this fixed. I am not liking what I am hearing coming back from the meetings with the Minister around the pyrite situation from those in Mayo who are on it for even the smallest of things are not being resolved at this stage and we are in the middle of July and that report is back at the end of the month. But this is one thing that you can bring clarity to the exemption without a self-assessment exemption and that that will be then applied retrospectively so that people get reimbursed for that tax. While I am at it Minister, I have to say to you all of the local authority houses in Mayo, Mayo County Council does not have any money to either house, to rehouse the people who are watching their homes crumbling. I am sorry, but this is all related. Thank you. Thank you very much.
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