Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am thankful for all the responses, which were very helpful. It is interesting because we discussed many of the same issues at our previous meeting and many of the same kinds of solutions seem to be emerging, which is really helpful. These will be half-questions and half-observations. It seems the witnesses are all moving towards the idea that one way of removing self-certification, as a sensible and pragmatic staging process, is to keep the BCAR but have local authorities as the employers or contractors for the certified assessors. Under the legislation, would that give the certified assessors the power that building control officers currently have so, for example, they can go on site when they want, etc.? It would seem that if this is possible, there would be a series of benefits.

First, it would not be a complete system overhaul and one would work within the existing model and make some changes that would not even require legislative alterations. As the witnesses say, it would be a way of controlling costs, managing jobs properly and recording data, albeit at local authority level. Am I right in thinking that is the direction in which that part of the discussion is going? If it is, it is a very sensible idea. The insurance bond came up at our previous meeting and it seems to be an interesting model to explore. I wonder if there are other jurisdictions which operate something like that in this context. Is it something at which we, as a committee, should be looking?

There was some discussion at our previous meeting regarding a kind of building authority. With the Health and Safety Authority or the example cited by witnesses, should the committee perhaps look at some kind of building control and compliance authority? This would not be instead of local authorities. One of the points made on the previous occasion by the fire safety certifier related to the fact that there is much good local knowledge and information but it is about providing that kind of overarching watchdog role, which involves data collection and consistency of standards. Is that something we should be considering?

I asked about the relationship between assessors and building control inspectors but I was not asking about their actual working relationship. My question was probably not very clear. It just seems that the two ideas do not fit together and it is almost as if they are from two different ways of thinking about building control and compliance. One is a bit of a legacy that is a hangover from the previous system and is not really operating. I am wondering if there is no actual relationship or clear added value in having both, is the solution not to merge them in the way I suggested at the start, with the local authority being the employer of the certifier?