Aidan Davitt (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted to welcome my constituency colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Peter Burke, to the House today. We all know he is no stranger to the House and is here on a regular basis. It can be hard to get anybody else from the Department here and he might look for a bit of a dig out.

It would be remiss of me not to mention Dr. Dermot Fitzpatrick today. Senator Mary Fitzpatrick has done much work on this, as we are aware, and she would be speaking to the Bill today except her father, a former Member both of this House and the Dáil, was buried on Monday. It is fitting that I mention this today. The light of heaven to him.

This is a wide-ranging and comprehensive Bill. I have been on to the Minister of State's office on a couple of occasions about different parts of it, and it goes from regulation to registered bodies to formation of a new board, as Senator Boyhan just mentioned. The Minister of State certainly has the full support of this side of the House and most of the House is probably quite happy with the Bill's general thrust.

I have experience of heavy regulation being introduced in the auctioneering fraternity. There were many bumps on the road and we did not properly envisage some of the unintended consequences at the time. This is being tied to the Construction Industry Federation, CIF, as a sort of regulatory body but much of the sector is quite well regulated in terms of training and cards required to go on sites. There is quite a bit of regulation for anybody working day to day in the industry.

I know the Bill has a different aspect, in that it probably seeks to have building companies and whatever else registered, but I want to tease this out. There may be a building company that has been trading for a long time and it may be reputable but nobody working there might have certified qualifications. In the auctioneering sector, there was a "grandfathering" element, meaning people who demonstrated experience working in the industry over a long period, or those who could demonstrate they were involved and insured over a certain period, could get a formal auctioneering licence. Where is the bar going to be set in getting accreditation in this area? I know anybody can join an organisation or a body like CIF, as they may now, and it is not a big ordeal. That organisation inquires about particular qualifications and what qualifications each member of staff in a company might have.

From the tenor of this Bill, it is implied that there will be more regulation in that regard so I am just curious how that process will fit in, especially when we are in the middle of a housing crisis. The last thing we want to see is people with the knowledge and experience gained over a long number of years saying to themselves at this point in their lives that they need to get into more regulation, red tape and whatever else. The last thing we want to do is lose anybody from the sector. I could be as far out as a lighthouse in that and the Minister of State may tell me something different but I am curious to hear about it. How we deal with such people will be very important. There is no doubt we want people with the relevant skills and knowledge to be involved and regulated. We are certainly heavily behind such a process. I just do not want to see anybody falling through the cracks, as happened to a point with the introduction of a certain bar of qualification or knowledge in the auctioneering sector. I am curious to know how the Department will deal with it. This Bill deals with many trades and the people involved may not be as well co-ordinated in terms of college and mainstream education as the auctioneering sector. I am curious to know how the matter will be teased out.

I welcome the Minister of State and the Bill. Much work has been put into it and it is very technical. There are even elements relating to defective building materials and there is a plethora of matters to be teased out. I wish the Minister of State well with it. He certainly has my full support and that of my party.