Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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1018. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government in view of local authorities being responsible for planning rules of quarries, the agency responsible for the assessment of the quality of materials extracted from quarries; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41425/14]

Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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Under Regulation (EU) No. 305/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council laying down harmonised conditions for the marketing of construction products and repealing Council Directive 89/106/EEC (known as the Construction Products Regulation or the “CPR”), manufacturers are required to provide robust and reliable information in a consistent way for construction products which are covered by harmonised European standards or European Technical Assessments. In broad terms, since 1 July 2013, manufacturers are required, when placing a construction product on the market, to make a Declaration of Performance and to affix the CE mark to each product being placed on the market. There are a number of harmonised European standards in place in respect of, inter alia, precast concrete products, aggregates and masonry and related products.

Harmonised European product standards provide the methods and the criteria for assessing the performance of construction products in relation to their essential characteristics, the harmonised standard includes the technical data necessary for the implementation of a system of assessment and verification of constancy of performance including third party oversight by a notified body (determined as proportionate to the level of risk involved) which the manufacturer is required to comply with.

Notified bodies are the only recognised third party bodies that can carry out the conformity assessments laid down in the harmonised European standards or the European Technical Assessments. A list of all officially designated notified bodies under the Construction Products Regulation is available on the European Union’s New Approach Notified and Designated Organisations (NANDO) Information System.

Responsibility for demonstrating a construction product’s compliance with the requirements of the Construction Products Regulation and the applicable harmonised European standard(s) rests with the manufacturer although obligations are also imposed on both the importers and distributors of such products.

Under the European Union (Construction Products) Regulations 2013, building control authorities have been designated as the principal market surveillance authorities for construction products that fall within the remit of Construction Products Regulation. Under these Regulations, market surveillance authorities have significant powers to deal with situations where constructions products are placed on the market which do not comply with the requirements set out in the Construction Products Regulation.