Pyrite Resolution Board to accept applications from next week – McEntee

Fine Gael Meath East TD, Helen McEntee, has today (Wednesday) said that the Pyrite Resolution Board (PRB)   will be in a position to accept applications from next week after, it was announced that the Pyrite Remediation Scheme has been published and the Board’s online application system will go live from 26^th February 2014.

“It is fantastic news that the PRB will finally be in a position to accept application from next week. The Minister for Environment, Phil Hogan TD, has said that homeowners who have registered an interest on the PRB’s website will be notified when the application system goes live.

“This follows the enactment of legislation which was drafted as a matter of priority before Christmas, following the Government’s decision to provide an initial €10 million in funding to allow remediation works to be carried out on homes affected by pyrite. T he Government has also promised that additional funding will be allocated over the next two years from the Capital Stimulus Programme.

“The Pyrite Action Group has been campaigning tirelessly to get to this stage, whereby homeowners affected by pyrite will finally be able to secure funding to bring their homes to a proper standard. This has taken longer than we would have hoped, but I am very pleased that this Government is stepping in where others have failed by providing a fund to allow remediation works to take place.

“The PRB will now work with the Housing Agency to allow remediation works to be carried out. This will provide much needed certainty to homeowners, who had been left in a very uncertain and stressful situation for far too long. I am pleased that Minister Hogan has said the PRB is a nxious to facilitate the commencement of remediation works by the Housing Agency at the earliest possible opportunity.

“Homeowners in my own constituency of Meath East will be hugely relieved that they will now be in a position to access funding, carrying out home repairs, and get on with their lives. It is very positive that the PRB can now carry out its work. I have been working on this issue for several years now, and I am delighted on the behalf of homeowners that we are finally resolving this problem.

“Pyrite is a legacy of the Fianna Fáil years of poor oversight, weak standards and little or no regulation. Reforms being introduced by the Minister for the Environment, Phil Hogan TD, will ensure that construction projects adhere to strict standards, and that developers will not be let off the hook if something goes wrong.

“We need to put the pyrite scandal, as well as all the other disasters associated with Fianna Fáil’s time in power, behind us. The pyrite homeowners deserve huge praise for their determined and resilient approach. Now they will finally be able to get on with their lives with a safe and secure roof over their heads.”

ENDS