Mr. John Garrett:

Limbo. Thanks, Damien. Again we see in paragraph (f) of the quarter 4 research update from Geological Survey Ireland that “liberated pyrrhotite identified within the strip foundations shows early evidence of oxidation" with consequential liberation of sulphur, "indicating incipient ISA", and that, "This is considerably less advanced than that in rising walls but still poses a long-term risk.”

We all know at this stage that the degradation of blockwork is a slow burner. There is uncertainty about the ability to sell properties in future. To the very best of my knowledge, up in Donegal, where I have limited experience, although I have done a couple of reports there, there is a practice where it is not a question of who has the problem but of who does not have it. These are all things I have heard and I am in constant conversation with many people. The practice has developed whereby auctioneers and solicitors will insist on houses being tested. That practice will travel down the country. It has to. We have seen it develop in Donegal. We have come down along the west coast and into Tipperary.

I have knowledge of five counties: Donegal, Sligo, Clare, Limerick and Tipperary. Generally, somebody who has bought a house after January 2020 cannot be in the scheme. That must change, for a simple reason. How can young first-time buyers or young families buying a house know, or how ought they have known, about pyrite in that house when the local authority, the Department of housing and the Government itself did not deem it necessary or appropriate to put their county on the scheme at the time? These people would have bought at the full market value and their houses would, in most cases, have qualified to be on the scheme had they not been sold. Therefore, there are many questions. I do not believe the burden of proof should be on the house owner. It should not be up to the householders to justify themselves. Engineers can give all the advice they like but it should be borne in mind that if a prospective house purchaser goes back to the auctioneer and states that his or her engineer has recommended that the blocks be tested, the seller will move to an underbidder. There is a shortage of houses. Given the urgency to make decisions along the way, people are put in a terrible position and can make a wrong decision. If my clients do not make the wrong decision, the underbidder will do so, in certain circumstances. They need to be protected from that.

Mr. Owens has said on a couple of occasions that the conservative option must be taken. We are in a state of limbo. I consider the answer to question 36 inappropriate. The NSAI is revising the scheme. It must examine it and what the geological survey update states and then prepare a standard we can work to. I hope I have answered the question.