Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Even the smaller local authorities have many people with a science background, including engineers. Would it not be simple for random tests to be done or for companies to supply a sample?

There are not that many in a given local authority area in order to display a sample. As I said, think of whoever is here in 25 years' time. We now sit here with a bill for €2.5 billion, that is, for 2,500 million euro, because of the hands-off approach. Surely we can stop creating these problems and allowing these problems to arise. We have the legislation and the knowledge. We have more knowledge than they had in 1949. Think of what this country was like in 1949 after the Second World War, recession and so on. In 1949 they were able to solve this. Do you know why they were able to do that? It was because they had a clerk of works and local authorities that kept an eye on things. That was despite the fact that the country was very poor. Here we are now and we cannot seem to do because everything goes in a roundabout way through trails. There cannot be a trail. This has to be straightforward.