Ms Sarah Neary:

We do not have those statistics today but we can work on those and come back to the Deputy on them. Of the 657 approvals for sanction, 642 of them have been approved and 15 are pending awaiting further information.

Inspections are a function of the building control authorities. A target inspection of 12% to 15% of new buildings was agreed with the County and City Management Association, CCMA, some time ago. That has been achieved across most local authorities during the past ten to 12 years. There have been instances on occasion where it has not been achieved related to resources or where staff have been deflected to other work in a building control area but just not in new buildings. Both the target and what is reported through the National Oversight and Audit Commission, NOAC, and the Local Government Management Agency, LGMA, specifically pertain to new buildings and only show one slice of the inspections that are happening. We have engaged with local authorities in a survey of all the activity in which building control authorities are involved, whether it be in extensions, material alternations, change of use of buildings or new buildings. With respect to construction products, they have powers of inspection under market surveillance. We are trying to capture what building control authorities are doing at present. The new buildings indicator may not be showing the full range of their work. On average, 25% of all buildings are inspected by local authorities and there are examples of local authorities which are way in excess of that percentage, for example, Dublin City Council had a level of 75% last year.