Mr. Aidan O'Connor:

On the question of local authority enforcement, it is correct that it is up to a local authority to enforce the regulations. Such enforcement takes place on the basis of a number of inspections and identification of the issues. There will now be records kept of inspections. There will be a requirement for a local authority to make sure the system is robust. This is the common protocol and measures of which I spoke will fall to us to set out in conjunction with the city and county managers' organisation. The identification of the type of inspection should also be recorded. Consequently, it will not be enough to state that one looked through the window, as that does not constitute an inspection and should not be allowed to be so. It should be the case that one went out and saw the crack on the gable, which is in fact six inches wide at the top, that it now has been identified and that the contractor must now rectify that mistake to avoid appearing in court with an enforcement order. This is what must happen now. It must be consequential and cannot be comfortable, cushy or cosy. It must be quite professional, detached and exact, and local authorities must record what they are doing.

The submission system and abuse clustering I have described will require the use of technology. We are moving to a stage at which hand-held devices can now be used. Our own inspectors who were involved with the unfinished estates were able to get the GPS locations of the sites and so on. Consequently, one can locate the site one is talking about precisely on the map and one can then enter information at the location at which one is conducting the inspection. All such new technology facilitates a better understanding of what someone does. Basically, when one considers what are the problems and how to manage them - this is a management issue for local authorities - it is clear that managers for building control should be defining what jobs they intend to inspect. They should be examining all jobs in some form and should then focus on some which may be problematic or the scale of which might be sufficiently large to warrant regular full inspections. Moreover, they must do this with the resources they have unless managers reassign resources. The question of what resources are available is a management decision on the part of city and county managers. A few pilots are being examined whereby a local authority could consider its resources in their entirety. It could identify the availability of taking in charge staff, as was mentioned earlier by Deputy Catherine Murphy. If one pools one's resources and one has a single major job that must be vetted thoroughly, one should be able to pull in resources from adjoining counties. One certainly will have protocols already set out as to what happens when something gets red-flagged. Such a red-flagging system is absolutely required.