Remediation of Dwellings Damaged by the Use of Defective Concrete Blocks (Amendment) Bill 2025: Committee and Remaining Stages
Dail Éireann — 2025-12-10
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Richard O'Donoghue (II), Limerick County

I will follow on from Deputies Ward and Ó Broin as regards where the regulation is based on block. As I said earlier, I have been a building contractor all my life. The same grit goes into block as goes into lintels, only it is a different sized chip. Lintels were 8 in. by 4 in., but now they are a regulated 8 in. by 8 in. even though it is the same material. It is just certified differently. It just uses a different sized chip, but it is the same stone. What goes into foundations also goes into the subfloor, the finished floor and the block work. It is the same stone. About the particles, the Minister might say that it covers the block only, but it is like baking a cake, using flour in one cake and saying that it is only down to that particular flour in that particular cake. It is the same flour. For every building material that may be used in a house, it is the same stone. The only thing that is different is the plastering, which is a sandstone. That is the difference. Everything else would be based off the different types of stone that are in the quarries. What I am trying to say to the Minister is that the amendment before the House seeks to remove "Blocks" only. If we were to interpret it through any law in the country, if a stone is a 6 mm chip, a 10 mm chip or a 20 mm chip, it is the same stone.
If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it is a duck. It is simple science. Why not listen to people who understand what they are talking about? These hands are rough enough from using it for many years. I understand it. I am asking Members to understand the same. It cannot be put down just as one product. It has to be put down within the products of the house that have been used.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2025-12-10/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:27+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-12-10