No action on vacant Mayo council houses affected by pyrite

UP to 12 council houses in Erris affected by pyrite are lying vacant.

Councillor Gerry Coyle wants to know if there is any assistance coming down from the department to get them rebuilt and lived in.

The council, he said, has 10 or 12 houses in the area, destroyed by pyrite, with no one living in them, and nothing seems to be happening.

Money will have to be spent to put safety measures in place around them as young people will congregate there and they will fall on someone.

There are at least 10 houses ready to be knocked and rebuilt, he said, which is what should be done, and get people back living in them, he told a meeting of Mayo County Council.

Director of services Tom Gilligan said the department are looking to develop a scheme for social houses affected by pyrite.

On a separate housing matter, Councillor Coyle highlighted how there are a number of social houses in Erris which do not have pyrite issues and yet there is no one living in them.

We are in a housing crisis, he said, and he wanted to know what is going on.

There are houses that are well fit to live in but now they have to have BER certs.

“If you are out on the street you have no BER cert,” he commented.

“Someone needs to cut the nonesense and get people into them.”

Councillor Sean Carey agreed it is 'frustrating' when council houses become vacant, that it takes a long time to bring them back into use again.