Marcella Corcoran Kennedy (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for bringing the report to us. It sounds as though at long last there is light at the end of the tunnel and I thank the Minister for his efforts in that regard. It has been a horrendous time for those involved. At the end of the day, it is a consumer protection issue and those who were responsible for solving this initially did not do so.

The research conducted has been extensive and it has given rise to all sorts of reasons that this occurred. What will the Minister do with that information to protect the consumer in the future? For example, deficiencies have been found in third level education, where particular geological information was not being given to students on particular courses. Will there be some sort of cross-sectoral linkage between the third level sector and, for example, the National Consumer Agency to ascertain where they could fill the gaps to ensure something like this never happens again?

My other question relates to the Buildings Regulation Advisory Board. When the board was before the committee recently, we were most concerned to discover that HomeBond held a position on it. Has the Minister considered the withdrawal of that position from HomeBond, as this committee recommended, because of HomeBond's disgraceful actions in this but also the fact the company would not come before the committee to account for itself?