Ms Sarah Neary:

If a person wants it more quickly, seven days before going on site, he or she can submit the fire certificate. The person takes the risk that it is being done in accordance with the building regulations but, as the Deputy said, we are dealing with professionals who should know what they are doing. We do not want to put anything at risk but that facility is available within the current building control structure whereby a person can apply seven days before starting on site.

A disabilities access certificate can be applied for, if required. There is much misunderstanding of when building regulations apply in that regard and that is an area on which we have done a certain amount of work which is available on our website. More is being done in the context of the working group.

As regards technical guidance documents, TGDs, I take the point that they are more geared towards new builds. However, they are not exclusive to new builds. Sections in several of the documents deal with, for example, replacement boilers, energy works to existing buildings and accessibility to existing buildings. There is a very big section in that regard, with much detail. It takes time to go through and understand in terms of applying it to certain developments, but it does exist. I accept that we could do more.

As regards Deputy Casey's point on revising all the technical guidance documents, that is not required because they are not all significantly different whether one is dealing with new or old builds. However, some are more difficult to interpret and that is why the working group, rather than producing a new series of the documents from A to M, is looking at typical typologies of existing buildings and giving more specific guidance on the trickier areas. We are trying to achieve the most efficient way of producing guidance to help facilitate buildings rather than embarking on a new set of 12 technical guidance documents which would take a long time to produce.

In terms of resources, it would be great if we could have more.