Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It has been very interesting listening to the responses that have been given. Starting with Mr. Owens, he gave evidence to the housing committee on 13 July 2023. He was here with the National Standards Authority of Ireland. That is not too far away from a year ago. Mr. Owens reported about insurance risk and said:

There are a number of reasons for the reluctance of engineers to join the [IS 465] register. A key factor is the risk profile of the scheme.

He talked about the "difficulty in obtaining professional indemnity ... insurance" and "is especially acute for remediation options 2 to 5". Of course, in Mayo and Donegal, we are very aware of the serious concern among engineers. Indeed, Mr. Owens continued by saying, "There will remain a lack of data for a considerable time going forward, thus conservative approaches in any remediation proposal may prevail." That was almost a year ago. The NSAI gave an update at that time and said it would publish preliminary findings if need be. This is really a mess, is it not? We have an IS 465 register based on desktop analysis. The Government calls this a multi-billion redress scheme, the biggest redress scheme in the history of the State. Is Mr. Owens not astonished that is based on a scientific desktop study?