A TEN-year-old girl had a lucky escape after almost being hit by a mica block while cycling around her home in Killygordon.

Niamh Moore narrowly avoided injury when a quoin came off the side of the house and landed less than a foot away from her.

Niamh’s parents Aisling Coyle and Barry Moore built their dream house in 2006 but in the past year and a half, cracks have started to appear.

Barry said the most heartbreaking thing about the mica crisis is that it has caused his daughter to become anxious and have worries about their family home.

He explained, “I was out doing work in the garden and Niamh was cycling around the house on her bike.

“I heard the block hitting the ground and when I looked over, Niamh was off her bike and it had fallen within a foot of her.

“She had a lucky escape as it was very close to her.

“She would usually let things go but this scared her and has raised a lot of questions.

“She has been asking when is the house going to fall down and where are we going to go if it does eventually fall down.

“We have tried to keep the mica talk away from Niamh but then this happened so she is now asking questions and noticing the cracks within the home and her own bedroom,” said Barry.

Unfortunately there are a lot of cracks on the walls of the house and Barry said there isn’t a foot of his house that is free of cracks.

The house is registered with the council but they have not yet applied for the scheme due to the initial cost of €6,000 for testing.

Barry continued, “To be honest, the scheme is unaffordable for us at the minute.

“My partner is waiting to get an operation on her back so we don’t know when she is going to be out of work or how long she will be off for so we are trying to hold back money for that time,” said Barry.

Barry has been trying to raise awareness of the mica redress campaign and has been putting up posters around his community.

“I have been putting up posters to raise awareness of what is going on. We need to get support from the government to get our homes fixed and we need something done urgently before someone gets hurt.”