Sir, – Why is it that, yet again, the Irish taxpayer is expected to pay hundreds of millions of euros due to the mistakes and negligence of others?
In the case of the defective building blocks in Donegal houses and elsewhere, surely some liability rests with the suppliers of the defective blocks and their insurers, the banks who may have mortgages on the properties, and the builders who constructed the houses with substandard materials, and their insurers?
– Yours, etc,
BATTIE WHITE,
Sandyford, Dublin 18.
Sir, – The projected cost of €3.2 billion to facilitate the Mica Redress Scheme is a truly shocking figure. It equates to four brand new, state of the art, public general hospitals. Or one Children’s. – Yours, etc,
EAMON FARRELL,
Sandymount,
Dublin 4.
Sir, – Regarding the use of sub-standard building materials in house construction, the Institute for Industrial Research and Standards was established in 1946 and among its various remits was the testing of building materials to ensure quality and safety.
In 1988 it was transformed into Eolas, then Forfás, and its latest incarnation is the NSAI or National Standards Authority of Ireland where it “upholds international metrology standards”, but this now seems to be a bureaucratic role, having lost its scientific and technical hands-on laboratory and testing functions. Who made these decisions? – Yours etc,
GEORGE REYNOLDS ,
Blessington, Co Wicklow.