Mr. Damien Owens:

I thank the committee for the invitation to participate in today's meeting on matters raised under the Remediation of Dwellings Damaged by the Use of Defective Concrete Blocks Bill. My name is Damien Owens and I am registrar of Engineers Ireland and a chartered engineer. I would like to introduce Mr. Aidan O’Connell, chartered engineer, who joining us online and who sat on the expert group on the defective concrete blocks scheme, and Mr. Alec McAllister, associate director of advocacy and engagement at Engineers Ireland.

Engineers Ireland is one of the oldest and largest representative bodies on the island of Ireland. It has more than 25,000 members. This membership incorporates all disciplines of the engineering profession in Ireland - consulting and contracting organisations, the public sector, semi-State bodies and educational institutes. Our members are organised into regional branches, engineering divisions and societies. Engineers Ireland awards the professional title of chartered engineer in line with the Institution of Civil Engineers of Ireland (Charter Amendment) Act 1969. Chartered engineers have been assessed by their peers as professionals in their field in delivering the highest standards of quality, expertise and innovation to serve the needs of society while ensuring public health and safety. They adhere to the Engineers Ireland code of ethics in all areas of their engineering practice. The registered professional title is recognised internationally and under Irish law. According to the Building Control (Amendment) Regulations (SI 9 of 2014 and code of practice, chartered engineers are one of the three professions that may act as assigned certifiers. Engineers Ireland has also established and maintains registers of suitable qualified persons in specialist areas, including IS 398 pyrite assessment and remediation, historical landfill and IS 465 mica and pyrite. Our members contribute to the development of national standards and policies with consultative groups across industry. Recent submissions include a draft code of practice for fire safety assessment of premises and buildings, a submission to the joint Oireachtas committee on professional indemnity insurance and submission on the climate action plan in May 2021.

It is important to understand the role of the engineer in the context of IS 465. IS 465 establishes a protocol for assessing and determining whether a building has been damaged by concrete blocks containing excessive amounts of certain deleterious materials - aggregate containing free or unbound muscovite mica or potentially deleterious quantities of pyrite. It describes the methods for establishing the extent of the problem and categorise dwellings, the scope of any testing required and the evaluation of the findings and provides the chartered engineer with guidance on the selection of the appropriate remedial works to be undertaken. The role of the registrant, an engineer on the IS 465 register, as set out is purely to prescribe-oversee testing and provide guidance on appropriate remedial works. By virtue of being on the IS 465 register, a registrant is not acting as an assigned certifier or in any other statutory role.

In late 2018, Engineers Ireland was requested by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage to provide a training programme with the outcome of establishing and maintaining a register of engineers considered competent to assess buildings damaged due to precast concrete blocks containing certain deleterious materials in accordance with the standard and hold professional indemnity insurance. This register lists chartered engineers who have the necessary direct professional experience, competency and specialist training in accordance with the requirements set out in the standard. The register went live in June 2020 and in the region of 30 engineers are on the register.

Since the inception of the register, Engineers Ireland registrants have provided feedback based their experience on the operation of the defective concrete blocks scheme and surveys conducted by registrants on several hundred properties. This feedback included making the case for the extension of IS 465 and associated grant scheme beyond Donegal and Mayo on 16 December 2020 and a submission to the working group on the defective blocks grant scheme on 21 September 2021. The September 2021 submission provided a wide-ranging perspective on the operation of the scheme and highlighted areas that were perhaps discussed today such as pyrrhotite and cavity foundation. The overwhelming sentiment from registrants regarding the scheme was the lack of certainty concerning partial remediation and the liability for any second and subsequent investigation and remediation works. In addition, there was evidence that there was a potentially different mechanism of deterioration of concrete blocks. This aspect requires additional investigation to accurately characterise mechanisms of deterioration so that suitable remedies can be designed and implemented. Subsequent to these inputs, Engineers Ireland was invited to participate in the expert group on the enhanced defective concrete block grant scheme chaired by Mr. Paul Forde in February of this year. This afforded the opportunity for engineering practitioners to provide input to the revised scheme.

Engineers Ireland has worked with stakeholders to implement a register of experts for the implementation of IS 465 and provide feedback from registrants to enable continuous improvement for all stakeholders. We welcome the attention that the committee is giving to the Remediation of Dwellings Damaged by the Use of Defective Concrete Blocks Bill and we look forward to working with the committee, Government and other stakeholders towards an improved solution.