Homeowners who can prove their properties have been damaged by "significant pyritic heave” will be exempt from the local property tax, the Minister for the Environment has said.
Dwellings where damage has been confirmed will be issued with a certificate and exemptions for three consecutive liability periods can be claimed.
Homeowners can claim an exemption for three consecutive liability periods commencing on 1 May 2013 (liability for 2013) or 1 November 2013 (liability date for 2014) if they get the relevant certificate before 31 December 2013 and make an election in writing to the Revenue Commissioners on or before 31 January 2014 specifying one of those dates.
Minister Phil Hogan said the issue was “yet another problem inherited from the previous government”. He said in setting up the Pyrite Panel in September 2011, he was “cognisant of the fact that the issue was essentially a civil matter and the State was not liable”.
“I was nevertheless determined to facilitate a solution for homeowners. At the time it was acknowledged that the pyrite problem was very complex and a solution would be difficult.”
Hogan said legislation to impose levies on the quarrying and insurance sectors will brought forward after Easter.
“While the imposition of a levy on the quarrying and insurance sectors is not in any way pointing the finger of blame at those sectors, it continues the established principle of industry paying for problems that have arisen within the sector, as happened in the motor industry and the travel trade,” he said.
