Sir, – With regard to your editorial on defective buildings (“The Irish Times view on building defects: an indictment of the industry”, Editorial Comment, August 2nd) I wish to remind readers that we had a system of checks in the past that worked.
I used to work at The Institute for Industrial Research and Standards (IIRS) in the 1970s. There was a department and laboratory there that was tasked with checking concrete blocks and concrete cubes from poured foundations.
These were fully inspected and if found to be defective the build had to stop and sometimes a concrete pour was dug up for reinstatement.
This service was discontinued in the late 1970s and privatised. The point is that there was a system in place that worked.
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The government of the day stopped it, now we have defective buildings.
Why do we never learn from the past, both our successes and our failures? – Yours, etc,
BILL KEE,
Skerries,
Co Dublin.