Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank Dr. Leemann for travelling here from Switzerland today. In a second, I will invite him to share with us the outcome of the testing he and Petrolab have carried out. There were some deeply worrying findings with regard to the very prominent role of pyrrhotite. I have read and listened to those findings. I will also invite Professor Dunlop to comment on his findings, the regulations that were in place in this State in 2002, 2004 and 2008 and how those regulations were not implemented or incorporated into IS 465, which underpins the current scheme and will underpin the scheme to come until it is reviewed. I suggest that Dr. Leemann and Professor Dunlop take approximately two minutes. I will then invite Mr. Aidan Houton, Mr. Michael Doherty and Mr. Thomas Campbell to speak on cost inflation. As has been talked about, the SCSI has done costings but these are based on the 2007 regulations and exclude the foundations, which is deeply worrying. Right now, the scheme would be based on the SCSI report from January 2022. Under this scheme, it is estimated that it would be late 2023 before the Minister could review this. That means that the costings will be two years old. Mr. Houton's testimony is deeply worrying. It occurs to me that when this scheme is operational, it will be necessary to base it on up-to-date SCSI costings that include foundations and meet the appropriate regulations for 2022. I ask Professor Dunlop and Dr. Leemann to speak first and then perhaps Mr. Doherty and Mr. Houton could take the second question.