Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. Lyons and have a couple of final questions on that matter. I am looking for an understanding of what it will mean if this problem is not rectified. Will costs be passed on to the customer? What will it mean in terms of the prices of homes? Have any calculations been done in that regard? We are also talking about offices and hotels, etc., which all require this type of certification. What concern would Mr. Lyons have for companies that are not able to deal with these increases? Will they fold? That is one of the concerns relayed to me by some of the companies. They do not think that these levels can be dealt with on an ongoing basis. That will result in unemployment and a bigger issue for any sector that depends on these certificates.

I will turn to the level of underwriting that is taking place. How many underwriters are we dealing with here? Are they all British underwriters? Is there a small number of them? We have had similar issues in the childcare sector, for example, where we were down to one insurance company to underwrite the sector. Other sectors, such as companies providing soft play areas and so on and so forth, have seen the appetite to underwrite withdraw from the market. There have been other issues about which we will talk.

My final comment relates to something close to my heart. Mr. Lyons talked about the north west. We are currently dealing with a serious problem, and have been over the past number of years. Homes are falling apart as a result of the mica scandal in Donegal, Mayo and Clare. Some 6,000 homes have been affected, predominantly in Donegal. One of the issues may concern Mr. Lyons' profession. The scheme as currently drafted is flawed and we are hoping for a 100% redress scheme. One of the problems with the scheme is that it is in the form of one home, one scheme, which means that the engineer must certify whether a home is affected by an outer block problem or an inner block problem, whether the house must be demolished and so on and so forth. If it is an outer block problem, it is cheaper than both outer and inner, and cheaper than demolishing the house, but the problem is that if the engineer gets it wrong, it is he or she who will be sued. As a result of that, the engineer needs insurance and indemnity. It also forces engineers to be ultra cautious and go for the more expensive option. Has Mr. Lyons had interaction about the scheme? Is he concerned that we have a Government scheme that potentially leaves engineers liable in that scenario? A number of claims in that area will cause insurance costs to spiral in terms of indemnity for engineers.