‘I feel that we have been neglected’ – householders in pyrite-stricken social housing estates in Mayo dealing with cracks, cold, and damp
Residents in two social housing estates in County Mayo are living in pyrite‑affected homes with widening cracks, cold drafts and growing damp, yet they remain excluded from the Defective Concrete Block Scheme.
Families in Ferry Close, Pullathomas, and Cois Abhainn, Carrowteige, say they have been left in limbo while private homeowners are able to progress with demolition and rebuild works under the scheme.
To date, 491 applications have been made to stage one of the scheme in Mayo, with 143 homes completed.
The scheme itself has been widely criticised. The Mayo Pyrite Action Group is calling for 100pc redress, a review of IS465 standards, stronger independent regulation of quarries, and retrospective payments for those already affected.
The group has also highlighted a major gap in the Government’s response - social housing is not covered.
As a result, residents in Mayo’s local authority estates are watching cracks spread across their walls, battling cold and damp conditions, and facing rising heating costs as their homes continue to deteriorate.
Pyrite has been confirmed in two estates. Cois Abhainn, built in 2002, contains six homes, three of which are occupied. Ferry Close, built in 2000, has 10 homes, with three currently lived in.
Residents in these estates spoke to the Irish Independent but wished to remain anonymous.
They say the damage in their homes is far beyond the IS465 threshold, yet they feel forgotten as social housing remains outside the Defective Concrete Block Scheme.
In one home, cracks on the outer wall have become so wide that an entire hand can fit through them.
One resident said they have reported the damage to Mayo County Council, but, with no clear Government scheme in place, little progress has been made.
“We reported it to the council, and that’s all we know. The feedback we get from the council is they don’t know themselves. There is nothing in place,” they said.
Inside their bedroom, cracks have spread along the gable wall, leaving both the wall and ceiling mouldy and the room extremely cold.
“You fill the tank with oil, and with the cold draft coming into the house, it is a waste of time. The house is not holding the heat,” they said.
The bathroom ceiling has also become mouldy, and the tiles have turned black. While the resident would like to retile their bathroom, they are reluctant to carry out improvement works.
“I haven’t done any home improvements because I can’t put money into a house that could be knocked down,” they said.
In 2021, Mayo County Council carried out outer leaf remediation works on one unit in Cois Abhainn.
However, the cracks have since returned, and residents say the repairs did not solve the problem.
After seeing the results of that work, one resident believes the only real solution is a full demolition and rebuild.
“It breaks my heart to say it because no one wants to go through that,” they said.
Residents say they feel trapped, unable to repair their homes, unable to access the defective blocks scheme, and unsure why this gap in the Government response has not been addressed.
“We like where we live. It is a nice place, but I feel that we have been neglected in a sense. It’s the not knowing year after year, it’s been going on a while, and it’s like we have been forgotten about,” they said.
As their homes continue to deteriorate and information from the Government remains limited, residents say they increasingly fear for their safety.
One resident living in a semi-detached home said storms have become a major concern, and they were particularly worried during Storm Eowyn.
“It’s getting worse. The last storm that came, I thought if that chimney went, it’s coming down on my house. It’s dangerous, it’s a health hazard,” they said.
“For me now, me and my neighbor, we want to upkeep the house, but we can’t put money into a house that we don’t know if it is going to be standing,” they explained.
While residents in social housing estates cannot access the Defective Concrete Blocks Grant Scheme, those who do qualify face a long, costly and often overwhelming process.
From the time I found out there was pyrite in this house, everything I done, and everything I thought was pyrite. That is all I could think of, it consumed me completely
The Parc Na Coille estate in Westport was built by Mayo County Council in conjunction with the approved housing body Respond.
The estate contains 54 homes that were sold under an affordable housing scheme, and more than 30 have so far tested positive for pyrite.
Although many residents hold mortgages with Mayo County Council, they are private homeowners and therefore eligible for the Defective Concrete Blocks Scheme.
However, homeowner Linda Claxton said the journey through the scheme has been long, stressful and costly.
Ms Claxton bought her home in 2003 and first noticed cracks in the walls in 2017. She said she was initially reassured they were settlement cracks and did not think much more about them.
That changed when cracks began appearing inside the house and plaster around a gable window in her sitting room started to bubble.
“I had gone through a divorce in 2020, and I got an auctioneer up to value the house. I showed him that, and he said, ‘It’s bad plastering, I wouldn’t worry about that’,” she said.
Still concerned, she contacted an engineer who referred her to a specialist. After inspecting the property, he told her he was “95pc sure it’s pyrite” and advised her to carry out a test.
Her initial reaction, she said: “I thought oh f***”.
Ms Claxton paid €3,300 for the first stage of testing, which confirmed the presence of pyrite.
“When the test results came back positive, and we had to pay another €3,000, my stomach sank,” she said.
“You got through so much as you are waiting on the test to come back. Then when it does come back positive you think ‘oh s*** what am I going to do now’”, she explained.
By 2022, after receiving the full report confirming pyrite, she informed Mayo County Council. To date, 33 homes in Parc Na Coille have been tested, all of them positive.
Ms Claxton said many residents hold council mortgages and their homes are subject to a 20‑year clawback.
“The council actually tried to tell me that we didn’t buy the houses from them. There has been five of these houses sold since 2017. Even though pyrite was suspected. They are telling us they didn’t know,” she said.
As a private homeowner, Ms Claxton was able to access the remediation scheme and became the first resident in the estate to have her home demolished in November 2023.
However, she said the financial realities of rebuilding quickly became clear.
Her total grant allocation was €193,333.60 to demolish and rebuild the house, 10pc of that amount was withheld by the council until the works were completed and signed off.
“I was given €193,000 to demolish and rebuild my house. The council holds 10pc so that bought me down to €170,000,
“I had to demolish the house for €30,000, I had to pay my engineer €10,000. That brought me down to €130,000 to rebuild a three-bedroom house,” she said.
“With the SEAI grant and the 10pc I have back [from the council] because my house is signed off, I am down between €60,000 and €70,000 - and I’m not finished yet,” she said.
“I thought with the grant and the savings that I had, that I would be able to cover it, but there’s no way,” she added.
As my house was being demolished, my kids were beside me saying ‘that’s where we took our first steps’, ‘that’s where we used to play when we were kids’, and ‘that’s my bedroom gone now,
During the demolition and rebuild, Ms Claxton and her three children had to leave their home. Finding accommodation in Westport proved impossible, and they relocated to Connemara.
Her daughter attends school in Louisburgh, and Ms Claxton had already paid €900 for her annual bus fare.
“We used to leave Connamara at 6.45am every morning. I’d bring her in, drop her at the bus stop, I’d come up to the house, open the gates and wait for people to come.
“I’d leave here and go to work for 1pm, I wouldn’t finish until 11.30pm and then head back to Connamara,” she said.
“That went on for six and a half months.”
“You get so far in life, you have your house the way you want it, you have your kids growing up, you’re happy and next thing you’re told your house is going to be demolished,” she said.
Watching the demolition of the house she had lived in for two decades was a moment she said she will never forget.
“As my house was being demolished, my kids were beside me saying ‘that’s where we took our first steps’, ‘that’s where we used to play when we were kids’, and ‘that’s my bedroom gone now,” she said.
The last bedroom left standing was her own. As she watched it fall, she thought: “I am homeless. My kids are homeless. What if I can’t do this? That is a fear you can never explain to anybody.”
Ms Claxton said the experience consumed her life.
“From the time I found out there was pyrite in this house, everything I done, and everything I thought was pyrite. That is all I could think of, it consumed me completely,” she said.
In March 2023, a few months before her home was demolished, Ms Claxton discovered a lump on her breast. She went to her doctor and waited seven weeks for an appointment in Galway.
She said during that time all she could think about was: “if I don't make it, what is going to happen to my kids and my home”.
Thankfully, it turned out to be a cyst, but she said the fear during that period was overwhelming.
Ms Claxton praised the support of Clodagh Gleeson, a senior official in Mayo County Council who works with homeowners affected by defective blocks.
She said Ms Gleeson had been “fantastic all the way through this” and said that support meant everything to her “because it is horrific what you go through.”
After the demolition, Ms Claxton began rebuilding. She chose an insulated concrete form (ICF) home, as she had lost trust in traditional concrete blocks.
Her family moved back into what she described as “a shell” of their former home, walls and a roof.
Ms Claxton undertook a self‑build and admits she “didn’t have a clue” what she was doing and “watched a lot of YouTube and asked builders a lot of questions”.
“I sat on the floor of my kitchen and put the kitchen together myself,” she said.
Bit by bit and with the help of her Uncle and some work colleagues, she rebuilt her home and now feels she is finally on the other side of the ordeal, able to “come home and close her front door”.
Although not completely finished with her own rebuild yet, Ms Claxton said her heart breaks for those who have yet to begin the process.
For residents in Pullathomas and Cois Abhainn, the fight to be included in the scheme is still ongoing.
Margaret Walsh from the Mayo Pyrite Action Group said the organisation is calling on the Government to extend the scheme to include social housing so that affected residents are not left behind.
“By bringing out compartmentalised schemes, a defective concrete block scheme for private homes, you are only dealing with one piece of it really,
“Just because they are not homeowners doesn’t mean they don’t have the same rights to live in their home,
“They need to be treated the same way as anyone else who purchased their home. It's just wrong,
“They have to address the housing needs of those in social housing who are affected by pyrite. They have to do it; they can’t be neglected,” she said.
Ms Walsh also suggested modular housing could provide a temporary solution for affected residents while their homes are rebuilt, an idea that has previously been raised by local representatives in Mayo.
She said that modular housing would allow families to remain in the communities where they have social ties and where their children attend school while their home is being rebuilt, rather than being moved to alternative housing in other parts of the county.
As the pyrite crisis continues to unfold, with more homes across the country testing positive for defective concrete blocks, Ms Walsh said the Mayo Pyrite Action Group remains determined to stand up for all those affected.
“Ultimately, wherever the blocks ended up, there are people affected, whether it's private homes, social housing, public buildings, schools, creches or private buildings. It is bigger than just private homes,” Ms Walsh said.
This article has been funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.