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

I am from the Inishowen Peninsula, from Buncrana. It is literally the epicentre of what is called a slow-moving earthquake. In my age cohort, for pretty much all of my friends and family, it has utterly devastated their lives. They are lay people like me. Of the engineers who are trained up and are now representing families, I cannot think of one who believes in the current standard. I repeat that the current standard is underpinning a multi-billion euro redress scheme. As we speak, tens of millions of euro will be spent again and again. I asked the Minister in early 2022, and I was not the only TD who asked the question, if it was prudent to pursue a scheme based on a standard that we knew at that stage not to be fit for purpose. Here we are two years later and we literally have a standard that no professional would say they believe in or would ask any homeowner to implement. What are we doing here? I find today's committee meeting and the previous two deeply troubling. I am a layperson but I am listening to qualified engineers who are saying they would not recommend anything other than demolition under this standard right now. They are not indemnified. However, the engineers who are indemnified and working for the Housing Agency will recommend something else because they have to implement the letter of the law. Again I will ask Mr. Murphy what is his sense of the situation and how he feels from the NSAI perspective? Does he feel the Government could have resourced the NSAI better to make speedier decisions on this?