Dr. Martina Cleary:

I will cut my statement short for the sake of brevity. Of particular importance to us, in County Clare, are four issues. First, is the damage threshold, which we feel has been introduced to be deliberately prohibitive. From the testing done on buildings, we know that it is only at the core testing stage that the science proves that even though the render may look fine, the blocks underneath are crumbling and rotting. I have included some visual examples of that in my submission to the committee. We are also worried about homeowner access to independent assessment and testing, which is crucial in determining the true gravity of the situation for homeowners. There is a conflict of interest right across the system, from engineers to testing companies and other professionals. We have encountered several difficulties along the way in ensuring there is an independence of testing regime. We are also concerned about the remediation options for pyrite and reactive sulphate damage. There is a sulphate attack in County Clare. The option there is demolition. That is what the experts are saying. We cannot continue to retain pyrite blocks in the buildings.