Mr. John Garrett:

I will make an introduction, as it is important that the committee knows a little about me. When I was invited by Mr. Owens to attend, I grasped the opportunity to share my experience and knowledge, acquired over the past number of years. I want to be part of the solution to this horrendous humanitarian crisis in my own country. Defective blocks are believed to be impacting families in 13 counties. My experience to date includes the preparation of condition assessment reports in five counties. In November 2020, I played a lead role in bringing the true extent of the problem to the attention of Engineers Ireland, which then published a document, entitled Case for the extension of I.S. 465 and associated Grant Scheme beyond Donegal and Mayo. In April 2022, I prepared the technical report that supported Limerick City and County Council's successful application for inclusion in the grant scheme. In April 2023, I prepared a similar report to support Sligo County Council's application.

In the same month, I organised and co-presented an Engineers Ireland Thomond region event, entitled Deleterious Materials in Concrete Masonry Units - Sharing the Knowledge. The co-presenters were Mr. John Paul Farren of Anytime Coring and Dr. Chris Brough of Petrolab. This event gave very clear advice about how to do condition assessment reports and how to properly extract core samples of blockwork from the dwellings and protect custody of the cores. Dr. Brough's presentation was particularly relevant and brought great clarity to the mechanisms of degradation in Donegal, which is unique compared with other counties. I am not a geologist and must remain within areas of my own expertise. It is my function to consider and apply the knowledge provided by suitably qualified and accredited laboratories. Suffice it to say, pyrrhotite and mica featured strongly in the presentation in relation Donegal and pyrite featured in most other counties. This presentation is available to view online. On the night, 162 people attended on the night and the presentation and has been looked at about 1,200 times since.

On average, I meet two families and do two condition assessment reports per week. I am confining my services to that because I am not in a position to become part of the certifying engineer process at the end of the day, but I will come to that question. For the most part, the remainder of my time is dedicated to exploring ways of applying what I have learned from each inspection and from interacting with laboratories and others who I know want to help.

In the Your Questions Answered document from June 2023, question 36 reads, “What is the position with existing house foundations?” I consider the answer to that question to be entirely inappropriate:

Foundations can be left in situ and built upon and this is the approach recommended. The issue of foundations is under review by the National Standards Authority of Ireland and should the current position change provision will be made to provide for foundations within the Enhanced Grant Scheme.

That leaves houseowners in a state of - I am trying to find the word-----