FAMILIES WHO WERE forced to move out of their homes after they were affected by pyrite have began moving back in.

This evening Fine Gael TD Regina Doherty has described the return of Meath residents to their homes as a “significant milestone”.

This round of rehousing will affect home owners from the Ashbourne, Dunboyne, Dunshaughlin and Coldricks Pass areas of the county.

They have been working with the Pyrite Resolution Board to facilitate the repair of their homes.

The board offers help to those affected by ‘pyrite heave’ where sub-standard building materials have caused structural damage.

The Pyrite Resolution Act was passed in 2013 and since then 735 applications have been received under the scheme.

Of these around 510 have been accepted, with engineers assigned to 372 properties.

In April it was reported that work had only been completed on five homes since 2013.

According to figures received in a parliamentary question at that time, 630 applications had been received, 485 had been validated and 300 had been approved for inclusion in the scheme.

On the work being carried out, Doherty said:

Homes are being diagnosed with pyrite every day; it is vital that the remediation scheme continues to be appropriately funded until we see every single family in Meath, Kildare and North Co Dublin living in pyrite free homes.

Read: Only 5 homes have been fixed as part of Phil Hogan’s big plan to tackle pyrite

Also: An estate agent has been appointed to sell Priory Hall 2.0 (don’t all queue at once)