Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for attending. I apologise, as I got the opening statements but had to duck out for another meeting after being in attendance online. I thank the witnesses for sharing their expertise. This is an important topic, first and foremost because it is about the safety of people's homes. Second, the taxpayer has had to step in to compensate people as a result of the issues we are discussing. We cannot continue to have a situation where buildings are constructed with substandard materials that endanger people and the taxpayer has to step in time and again. We will likely see the latter happening in respect of apartment blocks, too.

Mr. Ó Coigligh spoke a great deal about market surveillance. I wish to understand the process better. Are the public notified of market surveillance findings? Is there a register that people can check the results of that surveillance? My next question may be for one of the other witnesses, but how many products have been removed from the market as a result of surveillance? Mr. Ó Coigligh stated that market surveillance was part of a campaign of encouraging corrective activity. How can such activity be enforced? Does the Department collaborate on corrective activity with the other bodies that are present?

My next question is for the Department and the NBCMSO. It is on a matter that we are keen to get to the bottom of and questions have been raised about it at this meeting. To the witnesses' knowledge, are there quarries still producing substandard materials or materials containing mica or pyrite?

Regarding products being taken off the market, I am struggling to understand the situation from the statements and the report. Is it primarily corrective action that has been taken? If so, how does that work? If something has been constructed with the product, how is that situation addressed retrospectively? Are there trends in the reasons for corrective actions being taken? I can understand reasons such as paperwork and other administrative elements, but are there greater trends?

Regarding the production process, Ms Larkin referred to the annual checks on registered manufacturers. I hope it is not the case, but are there unregistered manufacturers operating, meaning they would be outside the NSAI's scope, or does she believe that everyone has been captured?

Those were my questions. My first was on market surveillance. Could I get more information on that and how the encouragement of corrective activity becomes enforcement? Is there confidence that no quarries are still producing defective materials? What happens when products are taken off the market? What trends are there in corrective actions? My final question was on the annual checks on registered manufacturers.