Irish MEP Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan has called on the European Parliament to stop talking and act on Ireland’s defective blocks crisis.
He has accused the Irish government of burying its head in the sand in relation to construction regulations after a heavily edited quarry audit was published by the Department of Housing last week.
The Sunday Business Post reported that the first report of an audit into concrete block manufacturers and quarries in Donegal contained criticisms of the lack of regulation at Donegal quarries. The National Building Control Office had criticised the lack of oversight of the quarry industry, as well as the lack of resources available to regulators of the sector.
But the report published last week, according to Mr Flanagan was politically sanitised.
Mr Flanagan, speaking to the European Parliament in Strasbourg last night said: “What’s the point in having a construction products regulation if it’s not in force?
“We ended up at the PETI committee because our government wants to bury its head in the sand.
“That became even more clear this week with the leak of a draft audit carried out by Ireland’s national building control office. It poignantly pointed out that market surveillance of construction products is to construction as public health is to medicine.
“The draft also stated that millions are spent on planning with billions on remediation and fixing non-compliances. In comparison very little is spent on building control inspection and market surveillance.
“But none of it made it into the politically sanitised version which the government released.
“The final report was a whitewash. The commission can no longer run away from its responsibilities, where people’s lives are at risk.
“We are all talking this week about corruption, well this is corruption, crippling and corrosive corruption.
“Time for the committee to stop talking about it and act.”
