Mr. John O'Mahony:

What we can do about defence was mentioned. We would wholeheartedly recommend latent defects insurance, LDI, for new builds, as being a part of the system. There is a no fault approach, it is fixed and it is sorted for the consumer. It is sorted out separately from a legal point of view. The consumer's interests are protected. We would strongly support that.

SI 9 should apply to all new buildings. It is a very simple fix. What I am hearing here is that there are two cohorts. There is a cohort of new build, which is really well regulated. There is now a necessity to look at current buildings and try to see how we can deal with those in terms of all regulation, legally, practically and in terms of conveyancing and safety. That is a huge ask. That is something that needs attention as we start to press vacant buildings back into use. There is a terrific document which the Department is about to issue called, Bringing Back Homes, which as a piece of work is very good to notify the public as to how they do this. Within it is a whole cohort of regulation that can be quite daunting. Addressing these sorts of issues separately from new build is important.