Maria Bailey (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I think the question regarding rapid build has already been put. Following on from our previous session, how many staff have been approved in housing over the past couple of years and in the building control area particularly? There was a significant loss of staff between 2006 and 2011. It will take time to rebuild that.

The watchdog argument was raised with the previous panel of witnesses. I would like to hear Ms Neary's comments on that.

I welcome that significant reforms have been introduced and are under way. As Deputy Casey said, we did not have any oversight at all so we have come a very long way in a couple of years, particularly in the development of the centralised structure for training, inspection, compliance and support, the building control management system and the proposed establishment of the Construction Industry Register Ireland, CIRI, which the witness mentioned. However, certain issues that arose in the past decade need to be addressed. Could the pyrite or concrete block issues happen again? Are we doing things to ensure that does not reoccur? Do the new regulations make it harder to bring older or historic buildings in cities back into use? If there are problems in this regard, what are they? How effective are current building control inspections compared with what they were previously? What are the cost implications associated with compliance now and will the witness outline the various aspects of those cost implications?

Standards of energy efficiency have improved. It is a cost in construction but the output costs of a purchaser are diminished because he or she will have massive savings if his or her house holds an A1 or A2 rating. Do the witnesses have any figures in this regard?