Comprehensive guide to the Mica Scandal

A position paper on the Donegal mica scandal, titled: 'All Deleterious Materials and Sulphide Minerals Scandal: Republic of Ireland' has been published by an elected member of Donegal County Council.

Compiled by Councillor Frank McBrearty (Independent), the document provides an "extensive and accessible explanation" to deleterious materials and sulphide minerals.

'All Deleterious Materials and Sulphide Minerals Scandal: Republic of Ireland' has today been sent to Donegal County Council CEO, John McLaughlin; the 36 elected councillors; all of the Council's directors; and members of the executive.

According to Cllr McBrearty, aggregates which contain these “dangerous materials and minerals” been used in the Construction Industry since the 1980s.

He said: “They are still being used today in the manufacturing of concrete products in Ireland and this will continue to be the case, if our government doesn’t get a handle on this self-regulated industry.

“The devastation caused by Mica, Pyrite, Pyrrhotite and other sulphides, showing up from test results in homes and properties in Donegal, Mayo and now other Counties, can only be described as a natural disaster caused by greed.

“We are all led to believe in 'good faith' that what we buy will have some kind of guarantee, but that has sadly gone with the wind in this horrendous man-made scandal.

“It has become very apparent from laboratory result analysis, concentrating only on certain deleterious materials such as Free Muscovite Mica in Donegal and Reactive Pyrite in Mayo, has become a fatal flaw in the testing process set down in the Irish Standard I.S. 465 2018+ A1:2020 protocols,” said Cllr McBrearty.

The Raphoe-based councillor added that the Statutory Instrument (S.I. 25) created by Government on its Irish standard (I.S. 465), commonly known as the 90/10 'Defective Concrete Block Grant' scheme and amended as the 'Enhanced' scheme, is unethical, unworkable and will give home owners no proper solutions on how to deal with this crisis.

He said: “The 90/10 scheme failed home owners and has been shown up for the fraud it was. The 'Enhanced' scheme is worse than the 90/10 scheme and both are a complete fraud.

“My document will allow the reader to navigate, guide and explain everything they did not know and everything they need to know about what is actually wrong with their homes and properties due to this man-made scandal.

“'All Deleterious Materials and Sulphide Minerals Scandal: Republic of Ireland' will educate and help the reader to understand the subject, even though we still have no peer review study or proper peer literature on all Deleterious Materials and Sulphide Minerals that cause catastrophic failure of concrete.

“We are still in the dark on this subject and we have no proper solutions on how to fix this crisis and the only engineering solution at present is full demolition, if you can get that option under I.S. 465 protocols,” said Cllr McBrearty.

Cllr McBrearty referenced cases in Connecticut USA, Massachusetts USA, Maurice in Quebec Canada and Norway that have devastated homes, properties, construction and engineering projects, like the major Rail project in Norway that had to be halted because of Pyrrhotite.

He said: “Canada has carried out some studies into this subject as a result of what happened in Maurice Quebec and Norway created a submission paper on Pyrrhotite in concrete.

“Until there is a full study completed into the whole subject ,we are all in the dark' and will continue to be so until someone in Government has the courage to establish and fully fund a peer review study in collaboration with a top university.

“This paper has all the reader needs to get an understanding of what has happened in this man-made scandal to date.”

Page One of 'All Deleterious Materials and Sulphide Minerals Scandal: Republic of Ireland' introduces Cllr Frank McBrearty (Jr). Pages Two and Three are this Introduction.

A link at the top of Page Four takes the reader to the full appendix of documents at page 20. Page Four also covers the timeline from when this man-made scandal first raised its ugly head in the early 2000s until the present day (2021).

There are links inserted from pages Five to Nineteen that allow the reader to navigate and search for Documents while reading. Contained in the links are media coverage, videos and other information that will help guide on a journey of education, which will lead to knowledge and give the reader power to understand this whole “man-made crisis” to date.

'All Deleterious Materials and Sulphide Minerals Scandal: Republic of Ireland' can be read here.