News

Defective building blocks leaving Donegal homes in danger of collapse

MORE than a 1,000 houses in Co Donegal could be in risk of collapse because of defective building blocks, it has been claimed.

Affected householders claim the use of "mica" or fool's gold in the manufacture of bricks has led to serious structural problems in some houses built from the 1980s onwards.

The material - a naturally occurring substance found in rock - attracts a high water content and eventually starts to crack and crumble.

At a public meeting at Burt, it was claimed that 111 homes in the north Donegal area were confirmed as having problems with mica in building blocks. However, the meeting was told that the total number of homes affected could be well over 1,000. More than 300 people turned out for Monday evening's meeting .

A spokeswoman for the Mica Action Group told The Irish News: "This should never have been allowed to be used in breeze blocks. We carried out a survey and the first houses to find problems were built in 1985 with the most recent in 2010."

The spokeswoman said: "It is potentially very dangerous. Many of these homes were built during the boom years. If you have an internal load-bearing wall built with these blocks, there could be a catastrophic collapse and you could have up to 50 tonnes coming down on your head."

She said the meeting heard emotional stories of people having to leave their dream homes and others having to move out of parts of their homes. The spokeswoman said the group wants the Irish government to become directly involved in the same way as it did in 2010 when similar problems were caused through the use of "pyrite" in Counties Meath and Dublin.

Irish government junior minister, Joe McHugh who attended the public meeting pledged to raise the Donegal problem with the Republic's environment minister, Alan Kelly.