Results 21-40 of 8,487 for speaker:Pádraig Mac Lochlainn

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Defective Concrete Blocks: Discussion (Resumed) (14 May 2024)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: The NSAI was asked in November 2021 to review what was a desktop study. Be mindful that right now, families are being asked to remove the outer leaf of their homes and leave internal leaves intact that potentially contain defective products. They are being asked not to test their foundations, based on the desktop study. Taxpayers who are not affected at all are being asked to put forward...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Defective Concrete Blocks: Discussion (Resumed) (14 May 2024)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: Do you think it is acceptable that we are now two and a half years on from the Minister asking the National Standards Authority of Ireland to review this? We have testimony from an international expert based on actual laboratory tests carried out. We have a number of submissions made of research and still the National Standards Authority of Ireland as we speak here today tells us that when...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Defective Concrete Blocks: Discussion (Resumed) (14 May 2024)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: When he was asked on Highland Radio, the chief executive of Donegal County Council said it was his professional opinion that one would have to remove the foundations from a house. We have Engineers Ireland talking about their engineers understandably taking a conservative approach when they do not trust the standard. Engineers Ireland today are asking the Housing Agency engineers to use a...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Defective Concrete Blocks: Discussion (Resumed) (14 May 2024)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: I am from the Inishowen Peninsula, from Buncrana. It is literally the epicentre of what is called a slow-moving earthquake. In my age cohort, for pretty much all of my friends and family, it has utterly devastated their lives. They are lay people like me. Of the engineers who are trained up and are now representing families, I cannot think of one who believes in the current standard. I...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Defective Concrete Blocks: Discussion (Resumed) (14 May 2024)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: Will the NSAI clarify what sampling and laboratory analysis was carried out in developing the existing standard, IS 465?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Defective Concrete Blocks: Discussion (Resumed) (14 May 2024)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: Was any sampling or lab testing done for pyrrhotite or internal sulphate attack as part of the development of that standard?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Defective Concrete Blocks: Discussion (Resumed) (14 May 2024)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: Even though this was subject to European law, that was not considered as part of the development of the existing standard.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Defective Concrete Blocks: Discussion (Resumed) (14 May 2024)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: What has been said to me by experts, because this is particularly relevant to Donegal, is that what is happening in Donegal is that our homeowners have been diagnosed with the wrong cancer. I am sorry to use that phrase. Because they are being diagnosed with the wrong cancer, they have the wrong prognosis and the wrong cure. Is that an acceptable statement to make? If the emerging...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Defective Concrete Blocks: Discussion (Resumed) (14 May 2024)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: I thank Dr. Murphy. That is the view.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Defective Concrete Blocks: Discussion (Resumed) (14 May 2024)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: The emerging evidence is that the deleterious material, or the cancer, that is causing what is happening to homes in Donegal is not actually mica but pyrrhotite and internal sulphate attack. Is that fair to say?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Defective Concrete Blocks: Discussion (Resumed) (14 May 2024)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: Last year, the NSAI said it would consider an interim recommendation if it was deemed necessary. As the witnesses know, since the legislation was drafted for the enhanced defective concrete blocks scheme and it was finally rushed through the Houses in July 2022, homeowners have repeatedly asked about this. Why have the foundations not been tested? Why has there not been an interim...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Defective Concrete Blocks: Discussion (Resumed) (14 May 2024)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: All the representatives of the NSAI here today will know that we are in a serious situation, as identified by Engineers Ireland for a second time before this committee. There is a significant dilemma. It is deeply unfair, mostly to the homeowners but also to engineers to compete with and contradict each other based on a standard that none of them have confidence in. I leave that as stated....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Defective Concrete Blocks: Discussion (Resumed) (14 May 2024)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: Is that happening, in Ms Stapleton's view?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Defective Concrete Blocks: Discussion (Resumed) (14 May 2024)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: How can that be Ms Stapleton's understanding? I am just giving her absolute, clear feedback from my own county that there is a large number of homeowners in their sixties and seventies. I invited her colleague, Mr. Derek Rafferty. There are facilitators who work at the coalface for the Inishowen Development Partnership. They work for Donegal Local Development Company. Their job is to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Defective Concrete Blocks: Discussion (Resumed) (14 May 2024)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: This is my final question and it is for everybody. Do the witnesses know of anybody who is in their late fifties, sixties or seventies who would be loaned anything between €50,000 and €150,000 by any financial institution in the State? Is anybody aware of a financial institution that would be in a position to lend such an amount to people of that age?

Written Answers — Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade: Passport Services (14 May 2024)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: 85. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if a first-time passport application (details supplied) will be processed in time for travel on 14 May 2024; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21222/24]

Written Answers — Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade: Passport Services (14 May 2024)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: 86. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if a first-time passport application (details supplied) will be processed in time for travel on 14 May 2024; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21223/24]

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Grant Payments (14 May 2024)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: 101. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment when clarity will be provide to the SEAI by his Department and the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications to ensure that applicants to the enhanced defective concrete block grant scheme can avail of the maximum SEAI retrofitting grant. [21632/24]

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Defective Building Materials (14 May 2024)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: 376. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government when he plans to increase the cap for the enhanced defective concrete block grant scheme in line with increased building construction costs, as advised by an organisation (details supplied). [21631/24]

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Defective Building Materials (9 May 2024)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: 206. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government when the draft regulations pertaining to the defective concrete block scheme for social housing remediation works will be adopted and published (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21022/24]