Pat Casey (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses. Deputy Ó Broin covered most of the issues. Ms Hegarty spoke of the difference between regulation and control, and the desktop and paper submissions on energy standards as compared to the administration of the building control regulations, which involve going on site visits to give approvals. The witnesses spoke of a pre-1990 period, before the local authorities carried out inspections on site as part of by-laws. We might end up going back to that type of system in the future. The witnesses suggested that the BCAR system amounted to self-regulation and was not the ideal way to move forward, saying we were the only country to have such a system.

Last week we received a couple of presentations and a report from the House of Commons in London following an investigation into its system, which was one of completely independent third-party inspections. It frightened me that 93% of buyers reported problems with their buildings but, reading a bit further into it, I read that 70% of those complaints related to aesthetic finishes and decor and this put my mind at ease. In the long term, the only way we can do this properly is by an independent third-party inspection regime. We are still in a self-regulatory regime. I might employ a builder, an assigned certifier and an auxiliary certifier but while this is an improvement on what was there before, which was nothing, the overall objective has to be to nip problems in the bud so that a problem does not arise in the first place.

The witnesses said they recognised the shortage of skills in the industry and that is a huge concern as we head into the most extensive programme of building activity that we have seen in years. What impact will that have? What is the level of professionalism available to manage these sites? I gave crude examples last week of a major construction site where there was about to be a large pour of concrete and five or six lorries were waiting. If the assigned certifier discovers something is wrong with the steel but his employer is standing over him, what is actually going to happen? A staff shortage and skills shortages will cause problems where things need to get done. Building control should be independent and we should not have self-regulation.

Later on we will ask the Department about the system but a lot of it involves submitting documents online. One scans them in and puts them up and everything is hunky dory. What level of local oversight is there of the documents? There is an independent visit from the building control authority to a site but there are different stages of the inspection regime for every construction job and, according to the figure in the 2015 report, the local authority gets out to a job in 27% of new builds.

Deputy Ó Broin asked how best we could have independent regulation in building control. Are the skills out there? If the private sector has the skills to certify, the State should be in a position to put in place a framework agreement for independent certification. I will ask questions at a later stage on the practical, day-to-day operation of BCAR. Do the witnesses believe it is working and that it is the way we should be moving forward? Should we move to another system?