Mr. Aidan O'Connor:

The BRAB invites organisations to put people forward for it. When they become members, the theory is they leave their hats behind them and advise on that basis. Of course, there will always be a certain amount of interest but we try and ensure they park them.

HomeBond has been an active participant on that board for many years. It brought in its own insurance scheme, information on sites and a manual for home builders. It did much good work in bringing forward the technical skills within the construction industry. It was the main dominant agent in the sector over the past 15 years. Another insurance company, Premier, came in but just acted as an insurance company.

HomeBond would have put forward a technical person, not a member of its board. The withdrawal of the HomeBond guarantee regarding pyrite-affected homes was decided by the HomeBond board because of its concern for the insurance on the ten-year guarantee that it had offered. One could ask why it was not resourced enough to carry the risk. It was not because it was a guarantee scheme, not an insurance scheme. It has since switched to being an insurance scheme which, I accept, is of little help to those people it has denied access to by standing back from declaring it does not take responsibility in pyrite cases. I am sure there are various opinions on that but I do not accept HomeBond should be allowed to stand back. I have said so directly.

Having technical people on the board, as we see it, is beneficial. Sometimes, they may speak on behalf of their own organisation but this makes it a lively and valuable board. We, as departmental officials, attend it as we offer the facility of administering it. It should be remembered the board is doing this work voluntarily and the only person who is paid is the chairperson, who gets a small allowance. HomeBond made the decision to exclude the pyrite cases but its representative was already on the BRAB for five years.