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

I thank the witnesses for their presentations. As a TD for Donegal based on the Inishowen Peninsula, I am all too familiar with the limitations of the scheme. I will focus on two areas as I am sure all members will want to cover as many points as possible.

The first area I want to focus on is the National Standards Authority of Ireland review of IS 465. At a previous committee hearing in public session, and privately afterwards, the NSAI conveyed serious concerns about what was a desktop study. We have a standard whereby homeowners are asked to remediate their homes based on a desktop study. As Ms Ward stated, there are now internationally peer-reviewed studies and the people responsible for these studies have already fed in findings to the NSAI.

The witnesses have rightly described as reckless in the extreme having a scheme, which the Cathaoirleach has stated will involve billions of euro of taxpayers' money, based on the wrong diagnosis. I have said that in Donegal we believe the scheme is like our families being diagnosed with the wrong cancer. I am sorry to use these terms but it is the only way I can describe it. This means it is the wrong prognosis and solution. It could not be more serious. The emerging evidence backs this up. I have another question but I would like to get a response from a number of the witnesses who have raised this.