Mr. Paul Forde:

I will add a little bit to that. With regard to Deputy Ó Broin's comment about the C stamp, I agree with him that one can stamp anything. However, the current material specifications call for what is called a declaration of performance, DOP, which Mr. O'Connell briefly touched on. In my opinion, the product will be as good as the content of the declaration of performance. Therefore, if the DOP is missing something, be it mica content or whatever else, those items need to be addressed. The Minister requested and the NSAI has commenced on a review of the Irish standards with regard to the production of concrete, including the aggregates contained in the products. I hope that will move us to a better place.

The previous Deputy commented that we do not want to see these problems as an occurrence of nature. What I would say to that is the minerals are natural but a product is man-controlled.