Five years and three months ago the Evening Herald led with a headline about my own estate and published a photograph of a house two doors from my own which was affected by pyrite. The following day, the TV cameras were in the estate and since then the pyrite problem has been simmering in the background.

Nothing was done to tackle the issue by the previous Administration. I pay tribute to a number of Deputies, particularly the Minister of State, Deputy Shane McEntee, and a number of Opposition Deputies, for the work they did in the previous Dáil and in the last months to ensure that this matter was brought to a head with the publication of this report and with the commitments given in the House by the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Hogan, today and previously.

As someone who has gone through the process myself, having discovered pyrite in July 2007 and having had it remediated last year as a result of a settlement agreement that was much publicised, I know the hurt, anguish and pain other home owners are going through. On top of the pressures of mortgage payments taken out during the boom, cost of living changes, salary worries, job losses and all sorts of impositions placed on individuals in the past years, the knowledge that it would be almost impossible to borrow the €50,000 needed to fix one’s home if it has pyrite – never mind if one can afford to get it tested to prove it has pyrite – is a significant worry.

The figure of 74 estates and 12,250 properties identified is probably accurate. I hope it is. It would be entirely unsatisfactory to come back to this issue a number of years from now, having found another pocket of dwellings constructed before or after 2007.