Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Chairman. I thank all of our witnesses present here today. As I did not get the opportunity to speak in the previous round although I was here, I wish also to thank all of our witnesses who were with us here this morning for sharing their own experiences.

I will start by thanking Mr. Forde and all of the members of the expert group who had a very difficult task in dealing with a very challenging and emotive situation. We have homes which should be safe and comfortable places for people to live but clearly are not. That is something that all of us in the committee want to rectify for families.

In response to the work and recommendations that the expert group put together, and the amplification it had from residents’ voices and their recommendations, there are many welcome changes in this latest iteration; most of which came from the expert group report and directly from homeowners. These are things like the taking on of the cost of testing; retrospective inclusion; the certificate of remediation having that legal footing; an appeals processl and, of course, the extension to other counties.

My first question is to ask Mr. Owens about the extension of the IS 465:2018 beyond Donegal and Mayo. Is he satisfied about how that is dealt with in this legislation?

My second question is directed to Mr. Mahon and I thank him and all of the members of his organisation for all of the work they have done on this. It has produced what he refers to as a standalone, bespoke report which is crucial to ensuring that this scheme is as fair and as equitable as possible. There are hard costs, soft costs and auxiliary items are all included, and there are very thorough costings. A great amount of work has gone into it. I, like others, am worried about the impact of inflation and I appreciate that he has offered to work on an annual basis, which is very useful. I would like to learn a little more, however. If he was asked to look at things again about how long I would like to know how long his work would take, how big a body of work it would be and would that delay matters in any way ?