Ms Sheenagh Rooney:

The RGII website has a list of registered gas installers. It can also be contacted by phone, and we have provided the number. CER gas safety officers investigate illegal activity, and there are currently two full-time and two part-time gas safety officers. That number has increased over the past year. We are satisfied with the resources we have for the legislative framework. The RGII regulates registered installers and it has five full-time gas inspectors. It also has a person overseeing those gas inspectors. The CER also inspects the inspectors from the RGII, auditing them and their processes on a yearly basis. Every inspector has one inspection per year.

The issue of following up prosecutions was raised by Deputy McEntee. If there is a successful prosecution against somebody for being unregistered, with a fine levied, it is open to the person to enter the scheme again and become registered. Such an installer would become registered only by meeting all the criteria, including qualifications and work for inspection, with an audit and inspections undertaken in that respect. Our objective is to get as many people as possible registered.

We have endeavoured at all times to follow up on any ideas that anybody has on how the insurance scheme could be improved. One idea is a requirement under home insurance that a person must show that a boiler is being serviced by a registered gas installer. We have written to the Irish Insurance Federation about that but as of yet we have not received a reply. We have engaged with merchants to see if they would be willing on a voluntary basis to sell boilers and appliance parts only to people who are registered, as we do not have legislative power to make it mandatory. Some merchants have taken this on board but others have not. We have also asked merchants to display publicity material at sales counters to reinforce the message to the public of the benefits of using a registered gas installer.

There was a query about the penalties that apply. These were indicated in our presentation. There is a difference between charges on indictment and summary charges; all our prosecutions to date have been for summary offences, so people are subject to a fine or term of imprisonment. All we do is investigate illegal operators; we bring a case to court but ultimately, it is a matter for the court as to what punishment is levied, particularly the amount of a fine. There have been fines in the region of €1,000 for illegally operating or portraying one's self as a registered installer.