Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am intrigued by the last contribution, but I can come back to it. It suggests that there is a problem. I believe the petitioner wrote to us about the need to establish whether there is a problem and what action should be taken.

I thank the witnesses for appearing before the committee. For most of us mere mortals, some of this is quite technical, and we bring to it our own life experiences in some ways. Are the witnesses aware of incidents of failure among these non-return valves to date? Have a number of them failed?

I moved into my house in 2009 or 2010. The plumber who had taken on the work disappeared quite soon afterwards. We found a number of issues quite quickly. The pressure pump went straight away. The thermostats on some of the radiators disappeared, so there were very high temperatures in some rooms. That was easy to change. The builder came and fixed it because it was under guarantee, and replaced it with something that works. In that case, somebody bought the equipment and installed it, and it failed. Has there been a noticeable increase in reports of these valves failing, either in commercial or domestic systems?

The witnesses mentioned in the presentation that the NSAI had been working on a standard since 2006, which is a long time. I know there are other standards that need to be worked on. Given that the Government has told us that we are coming out of recession and austerity, and that there is huge demand for housing in this city and across the country, is it not very urgent to have new home-building standards in place to ensure we do not replicate what we have been hearing in the news, not just in terms of water but also in other areas? Those standards need to be protected. I know the witness mentioned that once they are in primary or secondary legislation we have the means to enforce them. Would it be more appropriate for those standards to have that protection if possible?