Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Coming from a rural constituency, the Minister will agree that the quality of self-build is generally good. A farmer who builds his or her own house will stand over the work. We do not want to make the costs prohibitive, however. The experience of shopping around to date is that high prices are being quoted. The aforementioned quote of €18,000 is for a modest dwelling. The Minister clarified the big question of whether the local subcontractor, plasterer or bricklayer can be hired in. He has stated unequivocally that if I am involved in a self-build I can do that. However, the issue of the assigned certifier will still cause problems. The local authority building control officers carried out good work but they were under resourced. This could be a self-financing mechanism. If local authorities charged €1,000 or €2,000 for carrying out final inspections, people would be happy to pay them rather than pay €13,000 or €14,000 to somebody in the private sector. The final point I want to make is that housing extensions will be expensive as a result of these regulations.

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