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

Deputy Martin made a very good point when she asked if we have to wait for a tragedy to occur. It is not an exaggeration. If one looks at the history of building control, powers were first given to the Minister to develop building control regulations in the 1960s. The regulations were not drafted until the 1970s and it was then decided not to implement them. The Stardust fire led to the resurrection of the 1984 Building Control Bill which is the Act that ultimately underpinned legislation that followed. That was only further revised after Priory Hall. The only two significant pieces of building control legislation we have came after very substantial tragedies, the first of which resulted in significant loss of life. We must take that warning and not wait for a third tragedy before we have a proper system.

I want to put on record that there was a concerted effort to try to get amendments into the Home Building Finance Ireland Act to provide a specific loan product to management companies and owner occupiers with latent defects. Not to re-fight old battles, because we have a good cross-party consensus here, I do think that, if there are committee members who think that an amended Home Building Finance Ireland, HBFI, could provide one vehicle for dealing with latent defects, we should work together. There will be opportunities in legislation to deal with that. I am not saying that is the solution but the more things on the table, the better.

It is important that we do not just have this meeting, there must be follow-up. I wish to merge two proposals. On behalf of the entire committee, the Chair will write a letter to the Minister, outlining in brief what we have heard today and what our concerns are. I do not mean that to be a report so there is no need for the clerks to panic over extra work. We should express our concern that it is two years since the publication of our report and nothing has happened. We should request that meeting with the committee. I would like the Minister of State with responsibility for housing and urban development, Deputy English, and the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, and the building control and planning sections of the Department here for that. We should also urge the Minister and Minister for State to meet with the group now that it has been formally set up because it is representing all affected and not just Beacon South Quarter. A letter should be sent expressing dissatisfaction with the failure to implement our report, requesting a meeting and urging a meeting with the group at the earliest opportunity.