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

The witnesses should be aware of the Engineers Ireland submission to the committee on housing last year, some ten months ago. It states:

Some engineers are of the opinion that IS465 is not fit for purpose as long as it does not consider sulphide oxidation in Donegal defective blockwork and the standard should be updated based on available research. Updated guidance on acceptable thresholds for free mica and sulphide levels should be provided.

I will also quote from the submission it gave at the start of last week’s committee meeting before we had even started to probe the matters. It states:

The completion of this review is both essential and urgent, especially given the requirement of engineers employed by the Housing Agency, pursuant to section 12 of the Remediation of Dwellings Damaged by the Use of Defective Concrete Blocks Regulations 2023, to address an “indication of the potential for future deterioration of retained blocks in their current state”.

I could go on but, essentially, it was very clear that Engineers Ireland has profound concerns about IS 465. The Government states that this enhanced defective concrete blocks grants scheme, which is potentially a multibillion euro redress scheme, is the largest redress scheme in the history of the state. Does Mr. Rafferty agree with the statement that they are both realities?