Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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564. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government his plans to introduce a mandatory radon gas test for all residential property sales; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23113/14]

Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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The National Radon Control Strategy, which I published on 17 February 2014, was developed by an inter-agency group, and sets out some 48 recommendations, under six thematic areas, with the ultimate aim of reducing the number of radon-related lung cancer cases.

Successful implementation of the National Radon Control Strategy will require action from a range of Government Departments, public bodies and other stakeholders and so will require clear identification of responsibilities, good co-ordination between the various stakeholders and effective monitoring of progress. Accordingly, I have established a National Radon Control Strategy Co-ordination Group, under my Department’s chairmanship and comprising representatives from key Departments and Agencies, to implement and track the key recommendations in the Strategy. This Group will, inter alia: co-ordinate policies and actions on radon across the relevant Departments and agencies, monitor implementation of the Strategy, including reporting annually on progress, and at the end of the 4-year period covered by the action plan, make recommendations to Government on what further actions it considers necessary at that time.

One of the recommendations in the Strategy is that measures be introduced which would require that information on radon testing of a building be passed from the vendor to the purchaser when it is sold. It should be noted that further work is required to determine how such measures would work in practice.