Menolly claims €18m pyrite damages

Dublin's largest housebuilding firm, Menolly Homes, and three associated companies are claiming damages of more than €18 million against Irish Asphalt and the Lagan Group following the discovery of pyrite in the infill material used under concrete floors in three new housing estates in north Dublin.

Menolly, run by Séamus Ross, has served a statement of claim in the High Court arising out of damage to new homes, which it says stems from the supply of infill material with "excessively high pyrite concentrations".

The case is expected to proceed in the coming weeks.

The company said the defective infill material supplied by Irish Asphalt from its Bay Lane quarry near Kilshane in north Dublin was used at Drynam Hall in Kinsealy; Beaupark at Clongriffin; and Myrtle at The Coast, Baldoyle.

To date, 178 houses and apartments and two creches had been surveyed, and the results indicated that 162 units and the two creches required remedial work.

Menolly has undertaken to carry out remedial work on all the buildings affected, and to provide alternative accommodation for residents while the work is ongoing.

Documents lodged in the High Court show that 108 ground-floor houses and apartments in the Drynam Hall estate will have to undergo remedial work, which is estimated to cost almost €9 million, apart altogether from a range of other costs.

A further 34 houses and apartments in Beaupark will require attention at a cost of more than €2.7 million.

Some 20 more in Myrtle will have to have remedial work carried out at an estimated cost of more than €2.2 million.

Menolly said in its claim that the best particulars it could furnish at this stage were predicated on it being possible to reach agreement with homeowners on a package of measures, including compensation, and were thus tentative and provisional.