Residents of Mayo housing estate might sue council

The Cathaoirleach of Westport-Belmullet Municipal District has said he expects residents in a housing estate in Westport, whose properties were damaged by pyrite, to take a class action against Mayo County Council.

Cllr Peter Flynn made his comments at this week's meeting of the municipal district during a discussion about the Pairc na Coille estate in Westport, which was built by the council in the early 2000s under an affordable housing scheme. The homes were later found to have pyrite after they had been sold to residents. 

Cllr Brendan Mulroy called for a compensation scheme to be offered to the homeowners, noting that "numerous houses" in the estate have had to be demolished due to pyrite in the blocks. It is one of the few estates outside of North Mayo that has been found to have pyrite. 

“Mayo County Council is responsible for what people have had to go through here and I would be talking about a compensation scheme at this stage," said Cllr Mulroy. "The council handed out the keys of these houses to those people and when the houses were found to have pyrite, they still had to keep paying the rent and making mortgage payments while their houses were falling down around them, with Mayo County Council saying it was not their issue. 

"They left these people high and dry once the pyrite damage kicked in and I think a compensation package should be put in place, not just as a measure of goodwill but out of responsibility. This was very badly handled by the council from the start and what people in that estate went through in terms of their mental health cannot be overestimated, but still the council kept kicking the can down the road. 

"Some of the residents are still going through it, paying a mortgage again for their homes there. 

"The biggest problem I have with this is whether the alarm bells should have been ringing sooner and who knew what and when." 

Cllr John O’Malley supported the call for compensation while Cllr Flynn went a step further, saying: “I think a class action needs to be taken by the residents. We all know stuff was known and not dealt with and it ended up costing people, and that the pyrite was known to be in the buildings much earlier than it was communicated, so I see a class action as the only way for full compensation for this, which is a scandal of sorts. People are ending up with second mortgages of €80,000 to €100,000 to pay through no fault of their own. The only saving grace is they will have better houses coming out of it.

• Published as part of the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.