Ms Sarah Neary:

Our figures are as they are. Any time we make a change to building regulations, whether on foot of progress in the industry, national issues, safety matters or European directives, we carry out a regulatory impact assessment and consult for a three-month period both here and at European level. We deal with comments as we receive them. The Department is always mindful of the additional costs we are imposing on building and we reduce these as much as possible. We are interested in low cost and high value measures.

The energy sector stands out as an area that attracts significant cost in addition to all others in terms of buildings. However, this is on foot of the energy performance of buildings directive with which we are legally obliged to comply. This has the reward of delivering low running costs for dwellings and non-commercial buildings. We are engaging in public consultation on part L of the regulations which relates to non-domestic buildings.

On staffing and the building control function, this is under review as construction activity increases. The Department has its study on the activity in which the building control authorities are currently engaged and we want to see what has happened in this regard. We have a benchmark of resources at local authority level from 2015. The Minister is very committed to ensuring building control and housing are adequately resourced. The issue is not always one of additional resources. We will consistently focus on securing more effective use of existing resources. We have the inspection module and risk assessment, after which local authorities are informed of what may be the appropriate inspection regime. The risk assessment empowers the better use of resources. We are reviewing this matter with the County and City Management Association on an ongoing basis.