An Irish building material company has been criticised in the final Grenfell Tower report as part of an inquiry into the devastating disaster in London.
It was found in the 1,700-page report, written by Sir Martin Moore-Bick, that Cavan-headquartered company Kingspan, were involved in a deliberate strategy to mislead the market about their products.
Grenfell United, which represents some of the families, said "Sir Moore-Bick’s findings made it clear their lawyers were correct to tell the inquiry that corporate bodies, such as Kingspan, Celotex and Arconic, were ‘little better than crooks.'"
Kingspan, who reported €2 billion in revenues for the first three months of the year, were accused of "knowingly" misleading authorities about the results of tests performed on its K15 product, a combustible foam insulation of which 5% was used on the tower.
The report reads: "One very significant reason why Grenfell Tower came to be clad in combustible materials was systematic dishonesty on the part of those who made and sold the rain-screen cladding panels and insulation products. They engaged in deliberate and sustained strategies to manipulate the testing processes, misrepresent test data and mislead the market.
"From 2005 until after this inquiry had begun, Kingspan knowingly created a false market in insulation for use on buildings over 18 meters in height by claiming that K15 had been part of a system successfully tested under BS 8414 and could therefore be used in the external wall of any building over 18 meters in height regardless of its design or other components.
"That was a false claim, as it well knew, because BS 8414 is a method for testing complete wall systems and its results apply only to the particular system tested. As Kingspan knew, K15 could not honestly be sold as suitable for use in the external walls of buildings over 18 meters in height generally, but that is what it had succeeded in doing for many years."
Kingspan branding at the Irish company's 2018 AGM. (RollingNews.ie)
Releasing a statement in the wake of the report being released, Kingspan said that they "welcomed" the report’s publication stating that "the principal reason for the fire spread was the PE ACM cladding, which was not made by Kingspan.
"Kingspan has long acknowledged the wholly unacceptable historical failings that occurred in part of our UK insulation business. These were in no way reflective of how we conduct ourselves as a group, then or now. While deeply regrettable, they were not found to be causative of the tragedy," they said.
Kingspan added that it had "already emphatically addressed these issues, including the implementation of extensive and externally-verified measures to ensure our conduct and compliance standards are world-leading" and they "remain committed to playing a leading role in providing safe and sustainable building solutions."
Speaking after the report was published, Natasha Elcock, on behalf of Grenfell United, said: "We paid the price of systematic dishonesty, institutional indifference and neglect."
She added: "Human life was never a priority, and we lost friends, neighbors and loved ones in the most horrific way – from greed, corruption, incompetence and negligence."
* This article was originally published on Extra.ie.
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