Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 8 May 2024
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach
Defective Concrete Blocks: Discussion (Resumed)
Mr. Derek Rafferty:
I believe the point they made was that they initially confirmed what they had confirmed to us prior to the meeting, which is that once a house had been remediated to the standard under the scheme, that would be something they were comfortable with. I then noticed that the position evolved at the end and a view was taken - I am not sure if it was a personal view of the individual or an institutional view - that they would recommend the testing of foundations, and that was one of the concerns they raised. I cannot comment on the science or verification of that. I know they were probably taking a precautionary approach in regard to another aspect, where they were talking about the disagreement between the two sets of engineers. I understood where they were coming from. On the foundations issue, I cannot comment. All I can say is that, from our understanding, there is no science to say categorically at this point that the foundations are affected.
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