Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Senator O'Sullivan asked one of my questions. It is very positive today. It is great to see there are 23,000 engineers because in recent years we all saw the effects of recession. My own son has a qualification and he had to emigrate. He is a civil engineer in Calgary in Canada. Is there an issue in this regard? We can speak about apprentices. We are in a housing crisis and there is to be a change. We had a building crisis but now we are trying to promote apprenticeships because apprentices will be needed. Will this be crucial in future?

There is the idea that regular education, training and upskilling for all those in the construction sector is vital to ensure high standards are applied and maintained. That is crucial. Most local authorities contract their work. If a company has tax clearance, it would qualify as a contractor for local authorities. That is fine and the companies do good work as local authorities send out engineers to check it. Who will enforce the stipulation for regular education and training upskilling? Is it part of the remit of the bodies before us to say that a person has a certain number of courses to do in a year, two years or three years? What will happen in this regard? It is important.

The witnesses mentioned older buildings. I know a case where a young family bought an older house and paid a top price for it. It started to subside and although they had insurance, nobody would cover it. In the end I got it sorted but it took months. There was no accountability. When the couple bought the house, they were the second or third buyer. They had a mortgage and the bank would have required an engineer's inspection. Everybody passed it. When the house subsided, we could not get any accountability. It was devastating for the family. The witness spoke about indemnity and I am all for that. The smaller print with insurance must be watched. Insurance is crucial. I had a case where the people had insurance and two engineers had given reports. These are ordinary workers with a mortgage. They are not engineers but got professionals to do their job. They passed the building.

What is the bigger picture for this? It is great to see there will be so many initiatives. I have spoken to people recently who are building houses and it is great to see this important energy rating. There is quite a high standard now with these energy ratings. I do not know if that process works with the Department so will the witnesses explain it? It is important that all houses built have an energy rating.

It is great to see the provisions for fire regulations as we are aware of what has happened over the years. I want to be positive but enforcement is always the biggest issue. When we make regulations and rules, we must ask if money is there for enforcement, who will do it and who will be accountable. It is great to see that CIRI will tackle many of these issues. Health and safety are so important. We have all seen different issues with buildings over the years. I was a councillor for 18 years and I would have seen problems that I can now say will be addressed. I was going to ask about the hubs as well. Will the witnesses speak about education and apprenticeships, as I have concerns about them? It is great to see the 23,000 figure for engineers. I know many have emigrated but I hope they will come back to Ireland. It is important to get back on track with engineers and apprentices. There is a big market that needs to be targeted.