Barry Cowen (Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will deal first with the last questions asked. There may be some overlap. I welcome the continued commitment of members to the thrust of the Bill, which, as Deputy Ó Broin correctly stated, was also the tone on Second Stage, during which support for the Bill was obvious. I acknowledge that and know that members are interested in exploring the Bill in order to improve it and make it workable, as are my party and I.

Deputy Barry discussed his fears in regard to fast-tracking. The Bill does not necessarily provide for fast-tracking but, rather, a bringing together of local authority officials and those in responsibility in order to ensure there are synergies and that agreement is reached initially rather than through three or four processes taking differing lengths of time. That would suit owners and could suit the Department. It does not compromise standards because the system of inspection is for developments that are exempt from planning but inspection is ensured, which is not currently the case. At present, such inspections are sporadic and self-certified. The Bill takes that out of the equation and that can only improve standards.

We have proposed an initial outsourcing by local authorities to independent assessors. One would hope that there is scope for local authority staff to become the independent assessors and I voiced my support for that during a debate following the "Prime Time Investigates" programme that explored this area. If funding can be made available and local authorities are adequately resourced and financed to provide that expertise from within their own staff resources, I am all for that to be done because it copper-fastens the distance between the proposal and the works on the certification system. The Department has also raised issues in that specific regard.

There is no suggestion in the Bill that there should be a change in building regulation requirements in respect of fire safety, structural safety or ventilation as claimed by the Department in its response to the proposal. What is proposed is, as I said, a far more rigorous, integrated system with independent oversight either from independent assessors or local authority officials and which is safer than the self-certification and blanket exemptions that currently exist. The Department has reservations regarding a proposal to exempt the complex works of developing existing buildings without appropriate alternative arrangements that maintain the integrity of the standards and process.

What is proposed is essentially a far more robust system of independent oversight by technical experts than self-certification by the builder which is in essence, by the builder, owner or landlord. I contend, and I am sure the committee agrees, that what is contained here is a much higher standard of control than the Department's proposal that pursues much the same line of assessment that is currently there with self-certification.

The Department also states that the online application system for fire safety certificates and disability access certificates and dispensation and relaxation is also being developed. That is welcome in its own right but I do not believe it is necessarily relevant to the issue. It does not address the delays that are in the system now, be it online or paper-based, because it is going off on different strands. Regulations were proposed some time ago. They have not been published so it is not possible to compare them to this Bill. From the information that is available, it would seem that a self-certification extension of the Building Control (Amendment) Regulations, BCAR, system is envisaged. That would not overcome the barriers we have identified. The subdivision of a dwelling is a material change of use that could be addressed in the Bill, but in any case the Minister is not precluded from making new categories of exempted developments by regulation. That is an issue within the one-stop-shop system for the planner to clarify. If that is the situation, then one must accept it and go the route of a planning application for certain subdivisions.