Mr. Kevin Hollingsworth:

I have a few points. There is the issue of whether the assigned certifier could be appointed by the local authority.

That is a question of how the legislation is written and whether it can be done.

On international comparisons for insurance, in France there is decennial insurance, which is a ten-year insurance bond and that is the first point of redress for any policy. That answers Deputy Casey's next question as to who is the first point of call in ten years' time. If it is within that ten-year period, the policy would be the first point of call. Six years is the statute of limitations for the professionals and for their professional indemnity, PI, and that policy would be key as to the extent of the cover and the mechanisms for claiming.

An overarching building control authority is the way forward. The local authorities simply cannot be resourced up because of the skills shortage and even the courses to do it in the country. Deputy Casey asked about the fragmented building control authority applications. They are fragmented but the building control officers also do the disability access certificate, DACs. The same person does the DAC, does the general building control inspections - whether or not they actually occur - and looks after dangerous building occurrences. That person does a lot. When there is approximately one or a half such officer per local authority, that is extremely difficult.

There is some wisdom in a single point of application combining the fire safety certificate and the DAC. I personally do not understand why disability is more important than any of the other parts of the building control, such as ventilation which can cause condensation, mould and health problems. On structure, when one makes an application in the UK to knock down a wall in one's home, one must provide structural calculations. That is as important as anything else.

Deputy Casey raised the one-off house. It is not merely for the initial builder that it needs to be protected because when that house is sold on, as it inevitably will be, there will be another consumer who also needs to be protected. Although there is a cost for compliance, both in terms of the assigned certifier and the increased construction costs, those costs have to be met to protect both those who are initially building it and any subsequent purchasers. The Deputy's final question related to modular building. I do not know of any independent inspection of manufactured systems but the manufactured systems, in my experience of building pathology and finding defects, are where the major defects are. When a new system comes onto the market and everybody starts building it, they do not read the instruction booklet. It is not traditional cavity-block construction and more of the defects are associated with it. It is a valid point.