Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)

I thank Deputy Pringle for raising this matter. Yes, I do acknowledge that I hear the frustrations of your constituents as articulated by you. You have made specific reference to claims or information in respect of Donegal County Council which I have yet to see. I will certainly ask the Minister for housing to pursue them with the local authority and to revert to you directly. I would like clarity on the matter myself.

You specifically raised the issue of IS 465. The NSAI is Ireland's official standards body. It is an autonomous body under the responsibility of the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment. My understanding is that the NSAI recently, I think on 13 September, provided an update on the status of the review of IS 465. The review will initially take the form of an extensive amendment to the testing protocol. I am informed that the drafting of this amendment is nearing conclusion. The NSAI/TC63 has considered the interim output from the Geological Survey of Ireland managed research regarding internal sulphate attack, and testing to identify that as well as other highly reactive forms of iron sulphide will be included in the amended IS 465. Changes will also include updates to the building condition assessment and sampling protocols, taking account of the information currently available, including the learnings from the application of the current standard. The amendment will be published by the NSAI for a period of public engagement and stakeholders will be able to engage with this process using the Your Standard, Your Say platform which can be accessed via the NSAI website. All comments in respect of these protocols received during the consultation will then be fed in by the technical committee as part of its final recommendation.

I will specifically see if I can find a more precise timeline for the Deputy but that is the update I have today. I will also put it in writing to him as I am conscious there is quite a lot of technical information. What they are telling me here is that the current drafting process for the amendment has been progressing well with substantial commitment and input from the voluntary members. I thank them for that. Every effort has been made to complete committee deliberations and produce a public consultation draft amendment in quarter 3 of this year. However, it is now expected that the draft amendment will be published by the NSAI in quarter 4 for public consultation. Following the publication of any revised standard, the DCB grant scheme will be reviewed at that point in the event of such amendments being required. The Government also made a number of other amendments which the Deputy may be aware of and which I am happy to come back to in my further reply.

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