Mr. Micheál O'Connor:

Not necessarily. We would have an element of involvement, perhaps through building surveyors, etc., but the issue of a certificate of compliance would normally be through the designer, which would, by and large, be the architect, engineer or professional of that nature.

While it is regrettable in terms of the building standards and the examples we have seen in recent years, by and large the vast majority of building and design companies in the construction industry have been compliant. We have seen some excellent building and construction in recent years, including the great motorway infrastructure we now have and some fantastic buildings such as the National Conference Centre. However, with a large industry - it was an exceptionally large industry at the time and bigger than it ever was previously - with a huge number of new entrants into that industry including some people who may not have gone through the correct level of training and so forth, there were examples where proper standards and regulations were not met. In that regard the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland welcomes the building control regulations. It is very important that is financed properly and that sufficient personnel are put in place so that when certification is rolled out, it can be done efficiently and quickly. We would welcome higher standards for building regulations and controls.