Mr. John Wickham:

The role of the professional geologist is to look at the quarried material to understand its properties and make sure it does not have harmful impurities that would be likely to be incorporated into the construction works and cause a defect at a later stage. An example of the third party, which I talked about, is the National Standards Authority of Ireland, NSAI. It is a notified body under the construction products regulation. The Department is to notify an authority so we appointed the NSAI, which proved its competence to conduct auditing of manufacturers by means of the Irish National Accreditation Board. If the checks and balances are in place and the manufacturer has a factory production control process consistent with the harmonised standards, the NSAI gives it a certificate of factory production control which allows it to lawfully place its product on the market. The NSAI does not certify the materials; it certifies the process. The obligation rests on the manufacturer.

What has changed is that we have market surveillance of construction products, which is a function of the Building Control Authority.