Mr. Cormac Bradley:

I will deal with what might be one of the simpler aspects of the question, which relates to continuing professional development, CPD. Engineers, architects, doctors, accountants - almost every professional class I am aware of - has a form of CPD. The elephant in the room is that builders in general are not as committed to CPD as they were in times past. Engineers Ireland recently initiated a process in-house where every time I go to a CPD event, I can log it on a website facility within Engineers Ireland. I am obliged to generate 35 hours per year of CPD time. That is new learning and I can claim this morning's proceedings as CPD as I am learning the procedures of this committee and imparting knowledge, I hope, as part of the process.

The idea that CPD is now an applicable education regime to builders is a major step forward. I advise those who are outside the sector but very interested in it that the idea of embracing CPD was a voluntary gesture by the CIF when it was put in place. It did not look to put in place an old boys' club exclusive to its own members that it could administer. Currently, membership of CIF does not equate to membership of the CIRI board and vice versa. One cannot get into one as a consequence being in the other. They are two entities. Currently there is much emphasis on the independence of CIRI. It is independent of the CIF and all the federation does is provide the resources to administer the facility. We do not have somebody like Mr. Hubert Fitzpatrick saying we can let one person in but not another. It has nothing to do with it. It is simply a convenient house for CIRI. If we are successful in persuading the committee of our conviction, CIRI will become mandatory and we may have to address the circumstances where CIRI is currently housed. It must be resourced one way or another.

As other speakers have said, it would be more appropriate and effective to have CIRI administered by people who know what it is all about. For example, Sky television, when broadcasting football matches, now puts a referee in the studio on a Sunday or Monday night to assess the performance of other referees. One would not bring in the club owner or the centre forward to assess the performance of the referees. The referee assesses the performance of other referees, admittedly with the benefit of slow motion. The idea that CIRI will be an old boys' club and that we let in whoever we want because it suits us is contrary to the sentiments, not just of the CIF but also of the other stakeholders.

The Senator is correct that we do have a resource problem. It is not specific to the professionals on this side of the table. The CIF will tell the committee it is short of critical trades, carpenters, guys to do form work and electrical work. The challenge is that we have a shrinking resource pool and we are trying to do more faster and with more regulation. The significance is that the stakeholders on this side of the table are committed to the challenge. They all understand the need for transparency and acknowledge the need for interaction between the professions and the builders. We are not running away from the table, so to speak. The Chairman has not dragged us in here kicking and screaming. We want to see this. In reality, and it is nothing to do with any of the people in the room, we have been wanting it since 2012-13. We have a challenge.

With respect to the difficulties with the insurance industry, it is very difficult on a case-by-case basis to ask why these people were not sorted out immediately. Our understanding is that latent defects insurance, LDI, will provide the funds by which the matter can be addressed while the investigation into who is responsible goes on. The difference is that people are not waiting for the investigation to close out to allocate money to the cause. LDI would make sure that money would be available to address the remedial works while the investigation was continuing. With respect to who is responsible for the substandard works, I would go back to the suite of ancillary certification and certification generally, the whole point of which is to provide traceability, answerability and responsibility.