Mr. Bob Jordan:

The solution put forward is not provided for in the legislation. With regard to the issue, we are fully aware of the views of Engineers Ireland and homeowners on this. We have discussed it with individual homeowners, the homeowners' chartered engineers and chairpersons of various action groups. It is important to say that four out of every five remediation option determinations from the Housing Agency are either the same as the homeowners' engineers or even higher in some cases. We are speaking about a small number of determinations under the transitional arrangements. Where a range of remediation options exists we must understand that there can be some differences. To be fair to homeowners and engineers, they are probably taking a path of caution. Under the framework contracts we have, our Housing Agency chartered engineers have the benefit of reviewing IS 465 reports in bulk and, therefore, adopting a more standardised approach. This is as good an answer as I can give on this.