Mr. John Wickham:

I can talk about what the current system is in Ireland. We have the construction products regulation, which harmonises the rules for marketing of construction products. To supplement performances that are required on a national basis, the National Standards Authority of Ireland produces standard recommendations. They set performance limits on the chemical composition of particular aggregates and those are the limits and thresholds which specifiers, builders, etc. should look for on the declarations of performance that are an obligation of the manufacturer to produce at the outset. Those standard recommendations are then referred to in our building regulations in our technical guidance documents and they perform the prima faciaevidence of compliance with regulation. Overarching enforcement of that regime is primarily with the 31 building control authorities, but now we have the strength and centralisation of market surveillance under the National Building Control and Market Surveillance Office. That has been a huge improvement in terms of looking at the extractive industries sector. Since 2021, their programme of prioritisation would have to be focused on looking at aggregates for concrete and hardcore for underneath floor slabs. It has since extended, in 2020, to focus on blocks. It is a very well resourced unit. In the past year, it would have carried out many proactive inspections.