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

To be frank, there is a strong suspicion that the reason the Minister has not ensured that testing of foundations would be provided for in this legislation, is that if a homeowner clears out the foundation and the blocks, and completely clears out the site, and seeks to rebuild again, that the house would be rebuilt to modern standards. The view is that the Minister would be denying people. In my Second Stage speech I spoke of the famous "gimlet eye" - as referred to by former Taoiseach, Deputy Enda Kenny. This mindset is that you would deny people the ability to build a house, God forbid, with triple glazing and modern energy efficiency standards. Again, it is about penny-pinching. We know what penny-pinching did with the last scheme. It ended up costing the taxpayer a fortune of money because the Government got it so badly wrong. This is why we asked for a lengthy period of scrutiny in the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage, to try to make sure the Government gets this right so it does not have to revisit the scheme and cost the taxpayer even more money by its folly.

The issue around the foundations is crucial. Deputy Ó Broin is right. I believe that the NSAI panel got it wrong with IS 465. The panel did not allow for the testing of foundations. They did not allow for the testing for pyrrhotite, which is emerging as the main offender now, with other deleterious materials. The problem is that they got it wrong with IS 465. The people who got it wrong are now reviewing their own mistakes. There does not appear to be any international peer review and there is no deadline. The Minister is going to roll out legislation that is really flawed. The appeal from Deputy Ó Broin, and I am sure from all colleagues here, is to include and provide for foundations now. We know of the phrase, "If in doubt, leave it out". If there is any doubt about the foundations, do not make people build houses on dodgy foundations.

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