Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am almost done. I have a very short question to put after I make this point. I would like the State to explore with the Attorney General whether it is possible to pursue directors of companies who are still trading, although maybe not through the same legal entity.

There will be instances where the developer cannot be pursued so there must be a fund, whether it is raised through industry levies, Exchequer contributions, loans or taxes. Our committee was deliberately agnostic on the preferred funding mechanism so the proposal could not be shot down. One of our other recommendations was for a fire safety audit to discover the full extent of this, as recommended by the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland. Will the witnesses tell us more about the basis of the figure of 92,000? Will some of the homeowners take us through their personal experience from the point of discovery to now, so we can get a sense of it?

New regulations were introduced in 2014. We are now beginning to see significant examples of exactly the same kind of shoddy practices in post-2014 developments. Some of them have been widely reported in the newspapers as pre-2014 developments. The other recommendations of our report, which concerned strengthening building control for current and future builds, must also be returned to. The Irish Examiner ran a very detailed piece on Monday of this week that highlighted a very substantial case in my own constituency. Somebody built a development of 44 apartments with no building control compliance whatsoever. Today, a year on from the discovery of the defects, it is fully tenanted. The local authority is doing what it should do and is considering legal action. This was built in 2017. It has all of the problems the witnesses have experienced, if not more, despite being built since the Building Control (Amendment) Regulations 2014. We have to return to that issue. I thank the Vice Chairman for his indulgence.